Journey of Strength
by SecondSect
Summary: What if the Leagues gave trainers a bit more of a helping hand to the trainers? What if they waited until the trainers were a little older to let them travel throughout a region with monsters capable of mass destruction? What if all of this lead to a young trainer with a dream to be the strongest trainer to start with a Froakie?
1. Chapter 1

Journey of Strength

Chapter 1

"This last week has been too stressful", Samuel Oak says to himself as he rubs his back, "and of course, of all the times for there to be a tie for the starter selections, I have no way of giving out a fourth." Of course what he is referring to is the yearly selection of rookie trainers who decided to wait a little longer to get league sponsored for their journey. Each potential trainer, when they turn 13, are allowed the option of beginning their journey's immediately with no initial help from the league for them to attain a starter, or they can choose to spend an extra year where the regional league will teach them how to cook, how to care for Pokémon in general, allow them to learn from under some of the greatest professors in the world, and the top 3 students will be given a formal starter Pokémon. With those who score under the top 3 being taken out to a route near their home with an ace trainer and catching a weaker Pokémon that the ace trainer believes can be trained by a rookie or being given an egg for a random Pokémon to raise after it hatches. Now with this incentive obviously young trainers will do their best to get the best scores and, because of this, there have been times where 4 students, and a very rare 5, have all tied in the rankings. Now normally each regional professor keeps a pair of each starter in case of something like this happening. However, with the recent discovery of Mega Evolution, mainly the Mega Evolutions of the Kanto starting trio, Professor Sycamore of Kalos asked his Kanto-based colleague, Professor Oak, if he could raise one of each Kanto starter until they evolve to their final forms and can utilize the mega stones power. And if a Pokémon is trained for the mega evolution, and near the mega stone energies for most of their lives, if it would affect the mega evolution. Intrigued by this idea Professor Oak agreed. Because of this, when Professor Oak was informed that there was another 4 way tie for the league sponsored students he began searching for any way in which he could get a fourth starter. Only to be met with disappointment in each turn, whether it be the breeders telling him the eggs and newborns couldn't be separated from their mothers for a number of months more, or the older Pokémon being too experienced and too close to evolution for a new trainer to have. Reaching the end of his ideas he calls Professor Sycamore to ask him for one of the starters back for a new trainer. However…

"What do you mean, they've evolved already¬? They've only been in your care for a month! And I know when they left me they had no experience at all! They were newborns, even." Professor Oak was in for more disappointment, it seems.

"It appears that when a Pokémon is near the mega stone energy for their final form to evolve," Sycamore began, "their natural energies react in a way that makes the Pokémon want to do nothing more than reach a peak where the mega stone would help them. The charmander you gave to me took one look at the stone and trained for a week straight, barely stopping for food and water, not even wanting to rest until it evolved. And while the Squirtle and Bulbasaur gained a large desire to grow more powerful quickly, we were able to slow them down enough to sleep. Those two evolved about 4 days ago, and all of them are still intensely training."

"Well, do you have any suggestions on what I can do? Because every breeder I ask tells me that they don't have any they can give me. I'm guessing this is why you asked me in the first place?" Oak asks, "I really can't just tell one of the trainers 'oh, sorry, but all the extra starters I had are being used to see how mega stone energy works with their growth', most ace trainers aren't even aware of what mega evolution is with how tight lipped the league wants it to be, so there is no way that the children would even begin to understand why they aren't getting a starter."

"Hmm…" Sycamore took a minute to think on the problem. "I, may, have a solution. It might not work, but I have a Froakie here that after a few battles with a new trainer refuses to battle with them anymore. To the point that he has run away from them when called out and returns back here, maybe one of your trainers could use him? I think it's because the rookie trainers of Kalos don't get as much practical battle experience with our school as the other regions."

"Well," Oak began, "If Froakie is looking for battle experience we are in luck. Two of the trainers do have some experience from the mock battles I would allow them to do with my Pokémon. When the hopefuls would visit I would allow some of them do some mock battles with some of my team, using their weaker attacks only of course. No need to reshape Pallet on the whim of youngsters. But, two of the trainers showed a high level of understanding battle, much more than other hopefuls tend to have. If I have the two battle for Froakie, he should be fine with them."

"Perfect! I'll go collect Froakie and send him to you in an hour." Sycamore says as he ends the call.

Professor Oak leans back in his chair and sighs. "I really hope you two have a good showing, if not one of you won't have a starter for a few months, and that really isn't something I want for either of you."

3 Days Later

"Ok, everyone, I hope you are prepared!" Oak exclaims happily toward the four young trainers, two of which are still looking around the lab excitedly. "Now, before we begin I should warn you of something. Due to circumstances regarding some research I was able to assist in, we do not have the typical extra set of starters like I normally do."

One of the children, Leaf, was dressed in a blue shirt and red skirt with knee-length socks pushed halfway down her legs with a white hat with red trim around the inner rim of the hat and had brown, waist-length hair. Another, Yellow, wore a yellow cap to cover her dark blue hair with pigtails that somehow stuck up once it reached shoulder length and wore a white jacket over a red shirt and yellow shorts. The two children focused on Professor Oak, Gary and Ash wore clothes a little less colorful. Gary was wearing a purple long sleeved shirt with jeans and basic brown boots. Ash meanwhile, wore a red cap with a white front and Indigo League symbol, with a black t-shirt with a blue and shite short sleeve jacket and jeans. They were all surprised by Professor Oak and he could see hints of worry on their faces. "Not to worry," Oak said quickly. "Not to worry, you all did request different starters, aside from Gary and Ash, so there isn't any real worry for you two, Leaf and Yellow." At this he handed them both the Bulbasaur and Charmander pokéballs, respectively. After which, they thanked Professor Oak, wished the others luck and left, too excited to start their journeys to wait.

"I was able to get a possible replacement that might work for one of you," Oak continued, "however every breeder I talked to was unable to get me a Squirtle. Either they are too old to be a starter and are close to evolving, or too young and can't leave their mothers yet. Instead, one of you will receive the Water-type starter of Kalos, Froakie. Be warned, however, this Froakie has already proven that he will not abide by rookie mistakes with his trainers. Apparently this Froakie has run away from his trainer multiple times after finding them unsatisfactory in battles. Fortunately for you two, I believe that either of you have enough experience from practice battles for him to deem you acceptable." Professor Oak finishes his warning by releasing both Squirtle and Froakie, who immediately focused on the two prospective trainers.

Both Ash and Gary look a bit surprised and excited at the idea of possibly training a Pokémon from Kalos. Froakie, however sees something both of them. After looking back at Oak, he looks back at both of them and seemingly can't decide who to go with. Gary looks at Ash and has an idea on how to solve who should train Froakie.

"Hey Gramps, why not have Froakie watch Ash and I battle? Then he can see how good we actually are and decide who to go with."

Ash smiles at this idea and exclaims, "Yea! That sounds great! It's been a while since we were able to battle anyway." Froakie looks back at Professor Oak and nods enough to almost fall over, which he responds by laughing at.

"That sounds like a great idea, actually. And it seems as though Froakie agrees. Let's head to the battlefield."

Ten minutes later, Ash and Gary are on opposite sides of a battlefield, both holding a pokéballs, ready battle. Froakie and Squirtle excitedly watching alongside Professor Oak, who is acting as a referee for the match.

"This will be a 1-on-1 Pokémon battle, which will end when one side is unable to battle, are both trainers ready?" They both nodded, "Begin!"

Ash and Gary both threw their pokéballs, with Ash releasing a Poliwrath and Gary a Golduck. Both of them agreeing to use a water type to prove to Froakie and Squirtle that they could use either one well in battle.

Ash was the first one to give a command, "Poliwrath use Rock Slide!" Poliwrath jumps high with his fists glowing a dark brown color

"Golduck, counter them with Brick Break, if you get a clear shot, use Psychic." Gary said, sounding fairly calm despite looking worried about the incoming attack.

As Poliwrath's attack reached an apex he began punching the air, only for large rocks to come from his fists. Golduck responded by raising her arms with them glowing the maroon color of fighting energy and breaking any rocks that came close. Despite missing a few rocks, and wincing from a few small bruises, Golduck got a clear shot at Poliwrath and the jewel on her head glowing. Poliwrath instantly dropped to the ground near Golduck, yelling in pain as the psychic attack started putting pressure on his mind.

It took Ash a moment to remember how to counter Psychic attacks. "Poliwrath, use Payback!" Typically for a Pokémon to be able to fight a Psychic-type, it needs to be able to focus Bug-, Ghost-, or Dark-type energy to interfere with the Psychic-type energy, and Poliwrath, thankfully, had one such move. Payback being a Dark-type attack that increased in power if there was something hurting the user. Poliwrath jumped up, fists glowing a dark black and punched Golduck before she could react, thrown completely off balance and doubled over in pain.

"Dynamic Punch, Poliwrath! Keep up the pressure!" Ash yelled, happy that he was able to remember the counter to Psychic. Poliwrath responded with a simple grunt and his fist glowing the same color as Golduck's did with Brick Break, but a much deeper and brighter color.

Gary panics a little and yells, "Golduck, get away with Aqua Jet!" But before Golduck can actually form the energy for Aqua Jet, Poliwrath's attack connected and sends Golduck flying backward.

Ash grins, "Alright Poliwrath, one more Rock Slide should be all you need!"

"Golduck, use Calm Mind and then blast everything back with Synchronoise!" Gary yelled hoping that Golduck would be able to stop the Rock Slide with the powerful Psychic attack. Synchronoise is different than other psychic attacks by needing trace amounts of the same energy of the user, along with raw Psychic-type power to hurt opponents, but rather than attacking the mind like other psychic attacks, Synchronoise is actually a sound-based attack.

A moment after Golduck closed her eyes, they snapped open and her jewel glowing brighter than before, launching an attack silent to the humans watching but making Squirtle and Froakie wince slightly at the apparent noise they were hearing. Their response was much more mild than Poliwrath's who yelled again and stopped his attack.

"Payback Poliwrath!" Ash yelled. Poliwrath immediately molded dark energy around his fists and used gravity to launch a devastating punch at Golduck as he fell, knocking her back before she fell unconscious a moment later.

"Golduck is unable to battle!" Professor Oak called, startling both Gary and Ash who forgot that they had an audience. "The winners are Ash and Poliwrath. That was an exceptional battle you two, I am proud of how you both performed." Froakie decided to hop over to Gary and pat his leg for a moment before hopping over to Ash and sitting on his shoulder.

Ash smiled and rubbed Froakie's head, "So you're choosing me buddy?" Froakie simply nodded in response.

Gary smirked and looked at Squirtle, "So, do you want to come with me Squirtle? That match was just a taste of what we'll be able to accomplish." Squirtle nodded back and flexed his little arm in response. Gary then turned to Ash, "That was a nice battle, I thought for sure I had you with Synchronoise.

"I am very proud of how you two battled with your Pokémon." Professor Oak said, "You were both able to use your Pokémon to a high level, despite them not being yours, nor having trained them." With that Oak got the pokéballs from them and gave them their starter's pokéballs in return.

After another moment of rubbing Froakie, Ash speaks up, "Well, I say we head out already. We only have 8 months until the next Conference, after all. I'm going to the Forest soon. A Pikachu or Butterfree would be great help for Froakie."

With the Kanto Gym Circuit starting in just a few days and only lasting 8 months so the winner has time to challenge the Elite Four in the remaining 4, Ash didn't want to waste any time. It also gives Gym Leaders the ability to train any of their Pokémon and decide which 6 they will allow rookies to fight for their first 4 badges. Typically, until a rookie has 4 badges, their team is too weak to handle a Leader's fully trained Pokémon. So a Leader will have a team of Pokémon that are about the skill level of a rookie trainer's that they must register with their regional league to make sure there is a fair chance for new trainers to begin their journey. Once a rookie has 5 badges, they will get to fight a Leader's real team, but in a handicap match in their favor, 2-on-4, and then 3-on-5 for a rookie with 6 badges. Once a rookie trainer has 7 badges, however, he is deemed to have sufficient skill to fight a Leader's real team and fight in the normal 4-on-4, unless the leader wishes to have a smaller or larger battle, able to decide on a 1-on-1, or 6-on-6, depending on if they have any other pressing responsibilities at that time.

"Actually, Ash," Gary said, "I think I'm going to stay here for a few days and train Squirtle with some of the other water types, if it's alright with Gramps."

Professor Oak practically beamed at that. "That is a splendid idea. I've always wished more trainers would take advantage of their sponsor's help, more than just getting a rare Pokémon for a starter. Please remember that if either of you need help during your journey. If more people did, there wouldn't be so many trainers that stop training after their first few Conferences."

Both of them agreed, thankful that they would be able to call someone if they forgot something about a rare Pokémon, or needed a tip for training. Ash thanked Professor Oak one more time and said his goodbyes, excited to finally start his journey. Froakie meanwhile was excited about finally having a trainer that doesn't hesitate on every command and knows how to battle. Ash hurried home for a nice lunch and to collect his supplies before heading out on his journey.

When he gets home however, his mother, Delia, has a few questions on why he doesn't have the Squirtle he was very excited about starting with. After explaining how his morning went, she was just as excited as he was about Froakie.

"Well that is certainly an unusual way to get your starter." Delia said, "Are you sure you're not upset about not getting to raise squirtle? I know you were excited about training one."

Ash smiled and pet Froakie a bit as he responded, "I was at first, but I have a feeling Froakie is going to help me more than Squirtle could. He's going to stay out of his pokéball until we get to Viridian so we can bond before we get our first catch."

Delia smiled at Ash's response, glad that he wasn't heartbroken at not being able to raise the one he wanted. "You have all of your gear right? Nothing is missing? I would hate for you to get ready to set up camp, only to realize you left the tent here." Delia chuckles at the memory of Ash being so excited for the League School that he actually left his whole backpack at home the first day.

Ash blushes, thinking of the same day, "Don't worry mom, I triple checked it all before I went to the Lab, nothing is missing. But I should head out soon if I want to reach Viridian in the next few days." After that, Ash said goodbye to his mom one last time, promising to call when he got to the Viridian Pokémon Center, and made it to the entrance to route 1. He takes on last look at Pallet Town, and turns around with a smile on his face, excited to take on the world.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Walking through Route 1 and battling a few of the weaker wild Pokémon was both easy and nerve-wracking for Ash. Easy because Froakie knew Bubble and was able to win every battle he did, and nerve-wracking because a number of the wild Pokémon he battled were watched by their parents. Thankfully from being so close to Pallet Town, and Professor Oak's Champion-level team from when he went on his own journey, the wild Pokémon are much more docile than they typically are. The Raticate watching the small Rattata battle made Ash very nervous, because there was no way he could stop it if he made it mad. Thankfully, after the battles the Raticate would simply nod at Ash and Froakie before carrying the Rattata away. The few Furrets and Pidgeotto flocks did the same thankfully. Seeing that it was almost night time, Ash decided to set up a camp and talk to Froakie about his plans on training.

"I noticed that when you use Bubble, it takes you a while to charge up the energy before you can launch the attack." Ash told Froakie after setting up their tent. "I think for the next few days we should practice charging Bubble so that you can use it in an instant." Froakie nods, agreeing that is a good idea. The two fall asleep fairly quickly after that, with plans on getting stronger filling their dreams.

The next day Ash and Froakie battle a lot of wild Pokémon, like the previous day, mainly focusing on increasing the speed that Froakie can use Bubble. However, after a Spearow was soaked by a stray Bubble from a battle between a Froakie and Pidgey, Ash got worried. That worry multiplied when a few minutes later, Ash noticed a large flock of Spearow coming straight toward him and Froakie. Now, one of the things the league school taught their students was if you saw a large group of Pokémon known to be easy to rage, you run. You don't stay and fight, you don't try and hide, you do nothing except get the hell away from there. There have been too many cases where a trainer thought his team was strong enough for a small flock, only for the majority of the flock to show up mid battle and overwhelm the trainer's team. Deciding now was a good time to follow what he was taught, he ran as fast as he could. Unfortunately, the Spearow were faster. Just as they were about to reach him a few minutes later, however, he heard a voice yell, "Starmie! Thunder!" followed by the loudest CLAP he had ever heard in his life. Looking back he sees all of the Spearow on the ground, twitching with sparks coming off of their bodies every few seconds. He stops and Froakie jumps off of his shoulder, both of them confused on what happened until he sees a red-headed girl, wearing what looks like an almost see-through jacket and swimsuit, a few years older than him walking with a large Starmie beside her.

Taking a deep breath to stop from hyper-ventilating at the fact he almost died, he asks her, "Did you stop them?"

"Yea, I'm Misty by the way. Are you ok? Those Spearow looked really close by the time you passed me."

"I'm good, thank you. Another ten seconds and I might have been bird food, but you stopped them before they got me. Thanks. Oh, I'm Ash." He rambled, obviously shaken by what happened.

"Hey, are you a new trainer?" Misty asked, "Your Froakie looks kind of young, his bubbles aren't very thick yet, but I haven't seen a rookie have one before."

"Yea, I am actually." Ash says, finally having calmed down, "I just started my journey yesterday, Froakie is my starter. There was some kind of mix up and Professor Oak didn't have enough starters for me and my friends to all get one, so he had Froakie here sent over from Kalos to see if he would let one of us train him."

"Well, how about we head to Viridian and I'll give you some advice on water Pokémon on our way? I am a bit of an expert on them." Misty offered.

"Sure," Ash smiled, "It'll be awesome to get some advice from someone who has trained such a strong Water-type." Ash didn't think it was possible, but Starmie honestly preened from being called strong.

With that, they started toward Viridian, and after making sure no Spearow were following them, Misty gave Ash some pointers on when to teach Froakie and any water Pokémon he might get in the future the stronger attacks they are known for.

"For example, when you notice Froakie's Bubble attack is starting to look more solid, he is ready to start trying Water Pulse. And once Water Pulse starts affecting a wider area, he is ready for Surf. Usually if a Pokémon can learn Bubble beam, it is usually a better middle move than Water Pulse as it is essentially just more bubbles, but either is usable for a middle ground to Surf. Of course, Hydro Pump is really hard for Pokémon to learn if they don't have the ability to use Water Gun, but it is very rewarding. Being the strongest water attack that almost any water type can learn." Misty pauses here before adding, "I'm still trying to learn why Hydro Cannon can only be taught to a small group of Pokémon, yet Hydro Pump is such a common move. The most I have figured out so far is that the ones that can learn it also all have Torrent, so there might be a correlation between the two."

They make it to Viridian later that day without much issue. Misty does warn Ash that having Froakie use Bubble or Water Pulse too much before he evolves and can generate more water isn't a very good idea and to make sure he gets plenty of water, to both drink and soak in. The two decide to split since Ash wants to stay for a day or two training, while Misty wants to use the Leagues teleportation services to get to Cerulean quickly. The teleportation services are a bit of a quick fix for trainers who don't wish to travel constantly on the road, however they are very expensive so it's not something to always use if you can help it. There are some areas that the league has free teleportation, such as Mt. Moon and Rock Tunnel, where there are simply too many strong wild Pokémon for them to let trainers try and walk through. However those simply teleport trainers to the other side of the cave. The only way to be allowed access to those areas, and a cave near Cerulean, is to not only have all 8 badges from a region, but also making it to at least the top 8 in a Conference, and even then the access is limited to only a few hours entry at a time. Ash makes it to the Pokémon center with no trouble and has Nurse Joy look over Froakie since a few of the battles in the past few days were close calls, and there is no reason to not take advantage of the amazing healing machines in the center. He also decides to call his mom now and tell her about his run-in with the Spearow Flock… which went about as well as expected.

"You have been gone for barely a day, and you've already almost been mauled! I thought you were going to be careful Ash!" His mom exploded in worry and a bit of fear.

"I was, mom" Ash said more calmly than he felt. "It was just an unlucky accident that a Spearow was so close to a battle. Thankfully it all worked out in the end, I even met a really strong Water-type trainer and she saved me from the flock before they really got close to me." No need to worry his mother too badly, after all. Letting her know that the Spearow were probably only a few inches from him is not something that would help. "Don't worry about it, mom" He continued. "I'll be more careful on the groups of Pokémon around me next time." At that moment Nurse Joy's voice announces that his Pokémon is ready at the front desk and he ends the call with his mom after a few goodbyes. After collecting Froakie and renting a room for the night, Ash tells Froakie that tomorrow will be a bit more training and that the Pokémon he will be fighting on route 23 will be much stronger than the ones on route 1, because of it being the base of Mt. Silver the Pokémon will probably be the weaker ones that were kicked out of Mt. Silver by the stronger ones. Finding male Nidoran and Mankey are very common, after all.

"I would like it if our first catch is a Pikachu," Ash began, "I had my first 3 or 4 Pokémon fairly well planned out. I wanted a Pikachu or Caterpie, and since Worm Pokémon tend to evolve quickly, Butterfree so that after fighting the Rock Gym Leader of Pewter, I could use either it's natural Electric-type attacks, or teach the Butterfree Absorb, or maybe Mega Drain to handle the Water Gym Leader of Cerulean, then after making our way through route 5 to Saffron, we would catch a Pidgeotto if we caught a Pikachu, or wait until route 7 going to Celadon, and catching a Growlithe or Vulpix. After that, we would make our way through the Cycling Road routes, 16, 17, and 18, to get to Fuchsia and try to get a poison type to try and help us prepare for the Poison Gym Leader. After that the Pokémon I would try and catch would change depending on what we caught so far." Froakie listened carefully, memorizing the plan Ash had so far put together. They both fall asleep not long after.

The next day was fairly uneventful, aside from Froakie learning Quick Attack. While the Pokémon were a bit stronger, Ash wasn't comfortable enough to venture too far into route 23, but Froakie still got valuable experience fighting the new Pokémon. He also fought a few other new trainers, ones that didn't have a badge yet either, and got a little bit of winnings in his League account because of it. With that money, he bought a small handful of antidotes and potions so that he could safely get through Viridian Forest without having to worry too much about running out of healing supplies and needing to rush out of there.

Ash wakes up the following day and gets ready at a record pace, excited to find his first capture, proof that he is truly ready to be a Pokémon trainer. He also decides to have Froakie out with him as he walks through the Forest. Easier to not have anything sneak up on him if he has a Pokémon out and ready to defend him. After barely an hour and a half of walking, Ash finds the entrance to Viridian Forest and sets of in search of a Pikachu.

"I figure we'll spend a day or two looking for a Pikachu," Ash says ", or if we find a strong enough Caterpie we'll catch that before moving to Pewter. Sound good Froakie?" When Froakie nods Ash starts exploring. The first few hours are a bit boring, only finding a few weak Caterpie and Metapod, although there was a Weedle hive that Ash came across around the end of the third hour. But, after his experience with the Spearow, there doesn't seem to be a good excuse to have a Beedrill Swarm come after him. Around the fourth hour of searching however, he comes across a Caterpie that has challenged them multiple times already. Being beaten, but coming back for more.

"What do you think Froakie?" Ash asks, "Should we catch it?" Froakie responds by shrugging and hopping off of Ash's shoulder to talk with the battered looking bug-type. Surprisingly, after a minute or two of talking, Froakie looks back at Ash with a look of determination and a bit of pride. So Ash quickly walks over and kneels down to the bug.

"Hi Caterpie, would you like to join us?" Ash asks carefully, not wanting to scare the little bug type. "We might not seem like much now, but we plan on being the strongest in the world." That was the promise he and Gary swore when they were about 6 years old after all, to not stop until they were both the undisputed best in the world and to continue to push each other until they both achieved that dream. To his shock, the Caterpie that looks like it can hardly even look up, manages to lift itself as high as it can, and firmly nods. Ash captures Caterpie with no problem and after making his way back to the main path, sets up camp to heal Caterpie. Which takes long enough that it is already night once he is done.

The next few days are repetitive. Wake up, train, break up camp, travel for about 7 hours, and make camp, practice, sleep, with a few breaks for eating throughout. It wasn't until about a week into going through the Forest that something interesting actually happens.

Ash and Froakie were walking down the path, with Caterpie in his pokéball recovering from his early morning training when Froakie stops and looks into the deeper parts of the Forest. "What's wrong Froakie?" Ash asks, "Did you hear something?" Froakie starts to answer before tensing and trying to pull Ash deeper into the Forest. Worried that someone might be in trouble, Ash allows Froakie to lead him. Barely a minute later Ash and Froakie stumble upon a Treecko, who is obviously injured with numerous cuts across his body, running from something. Turning a bit to his left, he sees a massive swarm of Beedrill chasing the Treecko. Panicking, Ash yells, "Froakie, Bubble! As wide as you can make it! Treecko, over here! We can hold off the Beedrill for a few seconds, but we have to hurry out of here!" As Froakie starts shooting bubbles, Treecko looks towards Ash and hesitates for a second before running towards him and nearly collapsing before Ash scoops him up and carries him back to the path, yelling at Froakie to follow him and not get lost. Thankfully they make it back to the path without any Beedrill following them, but Ash decides it is better to be safe than sorry and runs for about another 15 minutes before stopping. Thankful that the League school required students to keep in good shape before graduating. Finally taking a good look at Treecko Ash is immediately horrified. Cuts and scrapes litter his body with a harsh puncture wound in his arm, and a few smaller puncture wounds in his body likely from Beedrill's Twinneedle or Poison Jab. Ash wastes no more time and pours an antidote in Treecko's wounds and pouring multiple potions into them to close the wounds as best as he can. Treecko wakes up a few minutes later but almost instantly falls back asleep, so Ash asks Froakie to talk to Treecko and find out how he got into the Forest when Treecko are not native to Kanto in any way. After setting up Camp and seeing Treecko still asleep, Ash decides to bring Treecko into the tent to keep him safe from any wild pokémon. That night Ash wakes up repeatedly from a light sleep at almost any sound, from a small buzzing going through the area, or a bird chirping.

The next morning Ash sleeps a few hours past his normal time of waking up, and hears some movement in his camp. Walking out of his tent, Ash sees Froakie sitting next to a pokéball.

"Froakie?" Ash asks slowly waking up, "Where is Treecko? Did he leave already?" Froakie merely looks at him and then back to the pokéball, before tapping the center, with Treecko popping out. "Treecko? What?" It took Ash a few seconds before he realizes what happened. "Wait, is that my pokéball?" Froakie nods. "Why did you give Treecko one of my pokéballs?" Froakie looks at Treecko and says something to him before Treecko nods and attempts to use a fast move, a flying type attack of some kind if he is seeing the color radiating off of Treecko correctly, before tripping and landing on the ground. "Was that Aerial Ace, Treecko? It looks like you almost have it down. That's pretty impressive." Treecko looks at him in surprise for a moment before hugging him. Froakie gets Ash's attention and mimics Treecko falling before acting like he will smash the pokéball.

It takes a moment but it finally clicks in Ash's head what happened. "Treecko," Ash begins slowly, "did you have a trainer before me?" Treecko nods sadly. "Did they release you because you couldn't learn Aerial Ace?" Treecko nods and begins to cry. Ash decides to wait on any more questions until Treecko isn't quite as upset, but how could someone call themselves a trainer and then release a Pokémon because they couldn't teach a Pokémon a move correctly? Especially when the move being taught isn't the same type as the Pokémon learning it. Every expert agrees that is a hard thing to do, doubly so for a Pokémon with a single type than one with two, such as Tentacool or Onix, because they don't have experience pulling from a second source of energy. The fact that Treecko was able to build the flying type energy of aerial ace was impressive enough, it looked like he just needs to work on the landing.

"Don't worry Treecko, I'll help you learn whatever move you want, and together we'll make you the absolute strongest you can be. We'll prove your old trainer was very stupid to let you go." Ash promised. Treecko looked at him with what Ash assumed was awe, before nodding and curling up in Ash's lap and going to sleep. Ash brought out Caterpie and introduced him to Treecko, not bothering to explain the story since Caterpie would have been aware of everything going on around him from within the pokéball. After feeding all of his Pokémon, Ash returned Caterpie and Treecko, and continued on the path to pewter, not wanting to battle much since Treecko and Caterpie were pretty exhausted. The walk to the exit was only a few hours away and he got there without running into any troublesome Pokémon, thankfully. Once he got into Pewter, Ash b-lined straight for the Pokémon Center, hoping to make sure Treecko and Caterpie were alright, along with a standard check up on Froakie since he wasn't really hurt on the trip through the forest. Ash decides to video call Professor Oak, mainly to update him on how he got Treecko and why there was one in Viridian Forest, a known haven for Bug-type Pokémon.

"Hmm…" Professor Oak began after hearing Ash's story, "Well, Treecko wasn't released by a League sponsored trainer, they aren't allowed to travel to a different region as a rookie. Chances are that it was someone with a very rich family who bought Treecko as a baby, or an egg. Either way, I must warn you. Despite Treecko acting very close to you now, it is not unlikely that when he evolves he will not listen to you nearly as much as he would otherwise. Trust issues from his other trainer abandoning him, forming a close bond with him will help mitigate that problem, but it isn't guaranteed."

"Thanks Professor, I'll keep that in mind." Was Ash's reply before he was called to collect his Pokémon, "Later Professor, my Pokémon just finished their check-up." After collecting his Pokémon and seeing more empty seats for video calls, Ash decides to call his mom before heading to bed.

"Hey mom! I made it to Pewter City already. How've you been?"

"Hi Ash, you've barely been gone a week ya know? I can handle myself fine, but I do miss having you home already." His mother replies

"Yea, I know what you mean, I miss you too. But hey, look! I caught a Treecko!" Ash exclaims as Treecko hops into view of the call.

"How did you catch one of those? There's no way he made it all the way to Kanto on his own."

"Well," Ash begins, "Apparently he had a trainer before him, that trainer released Treecko because he couldn't learn Aerial Ace. Which is stupid because Treecko's already learned the hard part, now he just needs to work on his landings and he'll have the move down pat, right bud?" Treecko looks at Ash and then nods at his mother.

"Oh dear, are you ok Treecko?" Delia asks Treecko. Not expecting to be asked directly, Treecko hides a little behind Ash's arm and nods again at her. Ash sees this and pats Treecko's head a little

"Now that I have Treecko I think I'll be able to handle the Rock Gym Leader a lot easier. With both Froakie and Treecko, after some training I don't think we'll have much issue." Ash tells his mother.

"Now Ashie," his mother scolds lightly, "They are a Gym Leader, even if they have to use a weaker team because you are a rookie, doesn't mean they will be easy to beat."

"I know mom," Ash has to force his eyes not to roll, "I'm not saying it'll be a walk in the park, even if they have to use some of his 6 registered Pokémon for rookies, I think that after some training with Froakie and Treecko, they'll be able to handle the gym no problem, if not from type advantage than from speed advantage. Rock types do tend to be very slow, especially in the early stages of evolution."

"Ok Ash, just be sure to keep your confidence in check. If you don't, you'll end up losing many battles that you could have won if you had some caution." Delia continues, "But I think you'll do just fine, honey. Try your best and I know you'll succeed."

"Thanks mom. I gotta go now, I'll call you again after I beat the Leader. Bye!"

"Bye, honey."

Ash turned to his Pokémon, "Well, how about we do some training, guys? And Treecko, if you still wanna work on Aerial Ace, I'll be sure to help you with it ok?"

His Pokémon jump in joy, with Caterpie crawling up to his shoulders with Froakie and Treecko trying to drag him to the training grounds behind the center.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Pokédex is truly a very awesome feat of technology. It functions as a way to keep a trainer up-to-date with any rare groups of Pokémon moving through Kanto, keeps them connected to the League database, can scan any wild Pokémon and give you an accurate description of them, if it scans a Pokémon connected to your trainer ID it will tell you the moves said Pokémon has learned, and it can also search the League's database for Pokémon performing a move correctly so you can help your Pokémon learn the move. After scanning Treecko, Ash learned Treecko knows Quick Attack, Absorb, and Mega Drain, and there is a note saying that he has the ability to use Flying-Type energy, although he hasn't actually learned a Flying-type move yet. Ash is impressed, Mega Drain is a difficult move to learn without a lot of experience with Absorb. He also scans Caterpie, to see if Caterpie might have the only second attack that its species can learn, Bug Bite, although that one requires one of Caterpie's parents knowing the move. For now, he will just be working on Tackle, preparing him for when he evolves into Metapod. Froakie, however, has mastered Bubble enough for him to start working on Water Pulse. Thankfully, Misty gave Ash enough tips on how to transition from Bubble to Water Pulse.

"Remember Froakie, Misty said that to learn Water Pulse you have to focus and charge all of the power from Bubble into a single attack that shoots at the target, with most of the power from the technique being when it pops in front of the opponent. Try and target the rocks for now, ok? I'm going to work with Treecko to see if we can figure out Aerial Ace." Froakie nods and hops over to the rocks to start his training.

Ash has Treecko practice the move a few times, and thinks he sees the problem when comparing it to other Pokémon learning. When other Pokémon use the move, they focus most of their power on controlling their descent and then using their momentum to launch themselves at the opponent. Treecko seems to be launching himself with as much power as he can, losing control and not being able to land properly. Surprisingly, it only takes a few tries after Ash corrects him before he starts getting the move down perfectly. Ash looks over to Froakie and sees him using what looks to be Water Pulse already. Curious on if Froakie already learned the attack, Ash goes over and asks him, and when Froakie nods and uses a single water pulse perfectly at a tree, Ash realizes Froakie probably learned the move in the Forest without either of them realizing since it is fairly close to Bubble. He decides to repeatedly check his Pokémon at least once a day to make sure they don't learn any moves with neither of them realizing it. Judging Froakie as OK in his training, Ash makes his way over to Caterpie and notices that his Tackles are very strong before Caterpie squirms over and climbs onto Ash's shoulder before glowing a bright white and evolving into Metapod, managing to stay perfectly balanced on his shoulder during the entire process. He smiles at that and after a few more minutes, calls an end to the training for the day. Tomorrow, they take the Boulder Badge.

The next day, Ash walks up to the Pewter City Gym, a building that looks as if it was made from a cave before someone plastered on the Indigo League symbol on the front. He pushes in the doors to reveal a well-lit battlefield littered with rocks and small boulders. Ash was a little surprised that no one else was here to challenge the gym but considering the current season of the league has only been open for a few days, enough time for the new trainers to get to know their Pokémon a little bit before the gyms opened, it wasn't that surprising that no one was lining up to challenge gyms yet. There is 8 months left until the Kanto Conference after all. Ash approached the front desk to register as challenging the gym, and after a mere five minutes was facing across from the Pewter Gym Leader, a man named Brock Harrison.

The official referee of the match stepped up to the referee box and began the match.

"The Official Pewter City Gym challenge of Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, vs Gym Leader Brock Harrison for the Boulder Badge, will be a 2-on-2 match. The challenger may substitute his Pokémon, however the Leader may not. This battle will be decided when one side has run out of usable Pokémon. Are both trainers ready?" at this both of them nodded, the referee yelled, "Begin!" At which point, both Ash and Brock released their Pokémon. Ash decided to start with Treecko, while Brock decided to start with... a seashell? As Ash pulled out his pokedex, a pair of eyes and what looked like a blue colored mustache came out of the opening and the pokedex identified it as Omanyte.

'Oh, so that's what Omanyte looks like,' Ash thought, 'the fossil Pokémon weren't studied very much in school. I honestly didn't think I would get to see one.'

"Omanyte, Rock Tomb" Brock said with a calm voice.

"Treecko use Aerial Ace to evade it, and hit him with a Mega Drain" Treecko glowed light gray and started jumping off of the rocks with surprising accuracy avoiding being trapped by the attack, and when the last of the rocks fell he brought his paws together in front of him and a small green glowing ball shot out to Omanyte.

"Water Pulse, Omanyte. Then Rock Polish." Brock countered "Get behind him and Aurora Beam."

As the green ball approached Omanyte, a large deep blue bubble form in front of him and pushed the Mega Drain back, hitting Treecko, before Omanyte's shell suddenly gained a very bright shine on it. As Omanyte rushed to get behind Treecko, Ash tells Treecko to intercept it with Pound, and then to use Mega Drain while in close range. Omanyte, despite being able to move faster with Rock Polish, is too slow to realize Treecko is in front of it before getting smacked in the face with his powerful tail or the green ball getting launched at him again, this time hitting him before he can form a counter. Omanyte is knocked out by the move that is super effective against both of its types. "Omanyte is unable to continue, therefore the winner is Treecko."

"Good attempt Omanyte, you did well against a Pokémon you shouldn't have had a chance against." Brock tells his Omanyte after returning it to its poke ball. "Well, that Treecko seems a little winded already despite absorbing Omanyte's energy with Mega Drain, are you sure you're ready to start battling gyms with it?"

"Well, if I'm being honest with you, Treecko is still a new addition to my team." Ash tells him, "but he's proven that he is strong enough to handle tough battles." Ash calls Treecko back to him, "But don't worry, I can tell when a Pokémon pushes itself for a battle and when it should stand down to recover some energy." Ash pats Treecko's head before addressing it directly, "Good job out there buddy. You got us half the win already." Treecko nods and sits down, wanting to watch the next battle.

The referee then tells them to release their second Pokémon.

Ash releases Froakie who is clearly ready to evolve into Frogadier, if the bubbles around his neck are any indication. They look like they forgot to tell his body they already evolved, looking exactly like a Frogadier's do soon after evolving. While Brock sends out what is clearly a Geodude, but it's gray instead of brown and has bushy black eyebrows and small black rocks forming a line across his head. Ash scans the Pokémon and is informed it is a Geodude, however "Its body is a magnetic stone. Iron sand attaches firmly to the portions of its body that are particularly magnetic", isn't the typical entry that Geodude have. Ash is completely confused.

"I know they don't usually cover this in the schools, however there are some locations in the world, such as the Alola region, and the Orange Archipelago, that can change a Pokémon's appearance and typing if they have had enough generations of living there." Brock tells him

"Really? How does that happen? And why wouldn't the schools cover them?" Ash is understandable confused about this.

Brock simply shrugs, "I think it has something to do with the energies around the tropical regions. As for why it's not taught, I think it's because a lot of trainers don't end up going to any of the locations that it happens. They don't have an official league of any kind, or gyms such as this one, so most trainers just avoid them and move on to the regions with actual leagues."

The referee interjects here with a loud throat clearing. "As much as I would love for you to teach Ash about different Pokémon, we are in the middle of an official Gym Challenge, Brock."

Brock blushes a little, "Right, let's get started. Geodude, Rock throw"

"Froakie avoid it and use Bubble" Ash starts off the battle hoping that the large group of bubbles can block enough of Geodude's view for Froakie to get close.

"Wait for it to get close Geodude." Was Brock's only response.

As the bubbles slowly got closer they ended up popping a good distance from Geodude to reveal Froakie rushing at Geodude to get a good close ranged attack in, "Now, Water Pulse!" As the large water attack began forming it quickly grew to be slightly larger than the one Omanyte used and launched at Geodude.

"Charge Beam, Geodude, try and push through it." And as the Electric-type beam went through the Water Pulse to reveal no one there Geodude quickly looked around only to hear the opposing trainer yell, "Water Pulse!" at the same time as his trainer yelled, "Thunder punch, below you!"So he gathered the necessary Electric-type energy in his fist as he brought it down directly below him, hitting the water frog at the same time as being hit by a large ball of water that broke as it came in contact with him and pushed him high into the sky. As he reached the apex of his flight, he looked down to see the Froakie, damaged, but still ready to attack him and as his trainer yelled for him to use Discharge he began charging the power necessary for the attack.

Ash looked on and thought of how to counter that move, with Charge Beam probably increasing Geodude's ability to use special attacks a Discharge would probably be enough to hurt Froakie a lot, if not take him out. "Froakie, use Bubble, make as many as you can to block the Discharge!" He yelled hoping it would be enough.

Both trainers watched as Geodude let loose a large growing sphere of Electric-type power while Froakie started shooting out as many bubbles as he could. Surprisingly enough, the Discharge was having an issue getting through the bubbles, so when both attacks died down, Froakie let out one last Water Pulse which hit the Geodude head on and knocked him out before he could even hit the ground.

"Geodude is unable to battle, Froakie wins. Gym Leader Brock is unable to continue, therefore the winner is Ash from Pallet Town!"

Immediately after the referee said this Froakie began to glow exactly like how Caterpie did before he evolved into metapod, And when Froakie stops growing and the glow fades, his starter has obviously evolved and yells "Frogadier!" as if wanting another challenge immediately upon evolving. Ash is a little stunned. Not only did he just win his first Gym Badge, his starter evolved too! He finally returns attention to his surroundings when Brock approaches him, with a bemused look on his face with Ash realizing he is still gawking at his Frogadier so shakes his head and shakes Brock's hand.

"Thanks for the good battle Ash, for your Froakie to be able to take a Thunder Punch from Geodude shows it must have truly wanted to win this for you." Brock hands him the Boulder Badge. "Congratulations on your first badge Ash. I hope I see you at the Conference this year." Ash is a little surprised at that, a good amount of rookie trainers don't get every badge in time and typically need to wait until their second time around a region to complete the circuit in the 8 month time frame. And since Gym Leaders are typically trainers who placed high enough in the conference showing exceptional skill with a particular type to impress the current roster of Leaders, Elite four, or sometimes even the Champion. If Brock can see enough in him already to think he could make it to the Conference, that's one very nice compliment.

"Thanks Brock, I'll be sure to get as far as I can." Ash replied smiling at the idea of making it to the conference, and determination to accomplish it filling him. "I should head back to the Pokémon Center and heal my Pokémon. Thanks for showing me your Geodude, it really threw me for a loop."

Brock chuckles and gives Ash the Boulder Badge, "Good luck on your journey Ash, and stay safe. You never know when you might be near a Pokémon out of your league. Oh, I almost forgot. Here's the TM for Rock Tomb. All you have to do is place a Pokémon's shrunken pokéball in the middle of the disc and the machine does the rest. You get that and $5,000 for successfully challenging the gym. The money should be added to your account later today."

"Yea, trust me, I know I can be outclassed." Was Ash's only reply, thinking of the Beedrill and Spearow he has already encountered. "Thanks again for the battle and the TM, I think I know who I should give it too. I got to get going to the center, though, I wanna make sure Frogadier is fine after evolving." With that Ash recalled Frogadier and races back to the Center to heal his exhausted Pokémon and do some light training with them for the rest of the day.

The next day, after healing his Pokémon, and making sure Frogadier had no issues, Ash decided to use the Rock Tomb TM on Treecko and have Treecko work with his other Pokémon learning the move. With Treecko already knowing Aerial Ace, Rock Tomb would probably be the limit of non-same type moves Treecko could know for now, since most Pokémon could only learn how to manipulate a few types outside of their original. A side effect that TM's cannot overcome, only a lot of training and practice could allow a Pokémon to truly be capable of accessing all of its move-pool. Most Champion's Pokémon are only able to access 5 or 6 types, and they are still considered some of the strongest and most skilled. Ash decided to stay at the Pokémon Center for an extra day to safely have Treecko master Rock Tomb, before moving on to route 3, and getting Treecko to teach Frogadier. It also gave him time to call his mom and tell him he won the gym battle. Ash brings out his Pokémon to tell them the current plan.

"Hey guys! I'm really proud of how you two did in the gym, Frogadier and Treecko." Ash said, "And don't worry Metapod, once you evolve, I'll have Treecko teach you how to use Mega Drain so you can help in the next gym." Metapod looked very pleased at that and found one of the boulders littered around the training grounds to practice Tackle and Harden, which is apparently how they prepare their bodies for evolution.

"Alright, Treecko I'm going to give you the TM for Rock Tomb, this way if you get in a fight with a flying or fire type. And I want you to spend today making sure you master Aerial Ace and Rock Tomb, because while we are on route 3 I want you to teach them to Frogadier, ok?" Treecko nods "And Frogadier, I want you to watch Treecko practice and try to manipulate energy other than water, it will help you once Treecko starts teaching you. Unfortunately I know this will take you a while to learn so don't worry if it takes you a little while, alright?" Frogadier looks at him before nodding seriously, and hopping off to watch Treecko. Ash decides to take this time to watch Metapod for a little while and go through his pokedex on any information for teaching Pokémon how to manipulate new energy for the first time. The group spent the day pretty much just doing that, Treecko was finally proficient with Rock Tomb and Aerial Ace, able to call the energy almost as fast as he could call Grass-type energy, Metapod seemed happy with his progress, and Frogadier seemed to be making decent progress on his own energy manipulation. The following day, Ash stocked up on his potions and food, since he has made sure to use one or two for each of his Pokémon throughout the day during training. During the following few days as he is traveling through route 3, Ash finds quite a few trainers, beating them mostly with Treecko, with him eventually evolving into Grovyle. During these few days, Frogadier finally learns how to bring out Flying-type energy and starts working on Aerial Ace.

The next morning, Ash wakes up after hearing something moving and notices Metapod is staring at the sunrise, and then evolving into a Butterfree not even 10 minutes later. Which brings a few chuckles from everyone as Butterfree gets used to his new body and stumbles around for a few minutes. Thankfully, he has no problems learning how to fly soon after and can use Gust, a basic Flying-type attack that Butterfree learn to get used to battling. Ash lets Butterfree stay out of his pokéball for the day to get used to his new body, but doesn't let him participate in any battles or training yet. He does however, find many trainers willing to battle him. Typically, the League doesn't allow trainers that are too strong to fight rookies, but it does allow any rookie to battle another with 1 badge more or less than they have without repercussions, so Ash is able to battle many people who were able to fight a Gym Leader before making their way to Pewter to fight Brock.

The next week passes by in a blur, getting Butterfree used to his new body, Frogadier and Grovyle training together to learn Rock Tomb, battling the odd trainer that they came across and travelling to the Pokémon center at the base of Mt. Moon. Ash finally makes it to the Pokémon Center near Mt. Moon's entrance and gets all of his Pokémon healed, along with checkups for Butterfree and Grovyle. When Ash gets them back with a clean bill of health, he goes over to the Ace Trainer in charge of Teleporting rookie trainers to the other side of Mt. Moon, gets a free teleportation over the mountain and is about to head toward Cerulean, when he feels… something in his head. He looks around for a few moments before noticing a Clefable watching him from a little higher up on the mountain. Ash freezes. Clefable never ¬show themselves to trainers, sometimes Clefairy will, if they decide they want to travel with a trainer, but never Clefable. Suddenly, he hears a calm voice say, "Good luck trainer, may fate favor you." A little spooked at hearing a voice so suddenly, he looks around to see who talked, but no one was near him, and when he looked back at the Clefable, it was gone. In a state of shock, and wondering why a Clefable would be where it was, Ash made his way to a clearing a few hours away and set up camp for the night.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Over the next few days Ash decides that Butterfree is finally strong enough to start practicing Absorb with Treecko, while Frogadier practices Aerial Ace and Water Pulse more. Thankfully, Butterfree learn how to use Grass-type energy almost immediately after evolving with Sleep Powder and Stun Spore, so learning Absorb, and soon Mega Drain will be very simple. The biggest problem he will have is forming the Grass-type energy into a ball and throwing it at the opponent, along with keeping a partial tether so the energy can be siphoned. Ash and his team spent about 5 days of training and moving a few miles closer to Cerulean each day. When Ash finally made it to Cerulean, he was fairly confident that he could handle the Water-type gym, but he still wants to spend a few days training in route 4 before getting to Cerulean. There were actually a lot of trainers that Ash could fight there, and all of his Pokémon became noticeably stronger from all of the battles and training they did over just a few days.

The Cerulean Gym was what one would expect for a gym of Water-types. The battlefield was a very large pool, but there were multiple large platforms for Pokémon that were stuck on land to make use of. When Ash challenged the Gym Leader though, he was a bit surprised to find out who she was however.

"Misty? You're the Cerulean Leader?" Ash asked. He thought she was just an experienced trainer that focused on water types, she never mentioned being a Gym Leader.

"Yup!" Misty responded with a big grin on her face. "How have you been? Any more flocks of Spearow?"

Ash grimaced lightly. "I've been good. No flocks, but on my way through Viridian Forest I did run into a Swarm of Beedrill. They were walking through the path when Froakie heard a scream and we were able to save a Pokémon. Thankfully the Beedrill didn't chase after us."

Misty looked at him concerned for a minute before shaking her head. "Wow, um, that's not quite what I expected. Anyway, you're here for a Gym battle, right? Your ID says you've already beaten Brock."

"Yea," Ash responded, "My team has been training hard for the past few weeks and I think they're ready for another Gym."

"Finally!" Misty exclaims, "The season started almost two and a half weeks ago, and I haven't gotten a single challenger yet!"

Misty calls for the League referee who steps into the box and begins the battle the exact same way as the one in Pewter, only with Misty's information instead. Apparently, her last name is Waterflower. They both release their Pokémon, Ash's Grovyle lands on one of the islands while Misty sends out a Goldeen.

Misty lets out a gasp before narrowing her eyes. "Is that the Pokémon you saved from the Beedrill swarm?" Ash just nods in response, already focused on battle.

"Goldeen, Water Pulse, knock it off the platform." Misty commands.

"Quick Attack, jump between them. If you get a shot use Mega Drain." Ash counters.

"Goldeen, hit it with Peck as it jumps." Ash's eyes widen. Peck, while not being a very powerful move like Megahorn, is still something that could cause damage to Grovyle if he isn't careful. Thankfully, Grovyle is able to avoid the Peck, but a Water Pulse stops his counter-attack of Mega Drain before Goldeen fell back into the water. The next ten minutes were a repetition of that scenario repeated over and over. Until one of them slips up, and unfortunately for Ash, it was Grovyle. Because of all of the Water Pulses being used, the platforms steadily got covered in more and more water, and it was only a matter of time before Grovyle accidentally landed in a puddle. The situation got even worse as before Grovyle would catch himself, Goldeen shot out of the water and nailed him with multiple Pecks.

"Great job Goldeen! Hit it with one more Water Pulse!" Misty called. Grovyle however was beginning to get mad. He trained hard for this, he has a type advantage even! He should not be being thrown around by a damn fish! Purely by instinct, he began focusing energy into the leaves on his arms to cut the Water Pulse in half before rushing at the Goldeen, hitting it with the hardest slash it could and threw Goldeen onto another platform, where it landed unmoving.

"Goldeen is unable to battle, Grovyle wins!" the referee called. Just as Ash was about to congratulate Grovyle on learning Leaf Blade, Grovyle stumbles around and Ash realizes why.

'Oh no,' Ash thought, 'he's confused. And with how exhaustive that fight was, I doubt he'll be able to do too much to the next Pokémon either. I better recall him for now and let Butterfree handle the next one.' After recalling Grovyle, he waited for the referee to tell them to send out their next Pokémon. Ash sends out Butterfree, and Misty releases a Staryu.

"Staryu might not look like much, but don't underestimate it. It's the child of the Starmie that saved you from the Spearow."

"Are both Trainers ready?" Seems like this referee is a little less patient than the one in Pewter. "Begin!"

"Butterfree, Stun Spore!" Ash called, wanting to get Staryu paralyzed quickly.

"Icy Wind." Misty ordered calmly. Staryu pointed its top leg at the incoming spores and letting out a strong gust of ice filled wind, blowing the spores away.

"Butterfree, staying in the air won't work, we've got to get close. Try Mega drain." Ash tells Butterfree, trying to figure out a new strategy.

"Bubble beam, Staryu. Push the Mega Drain away." Misty counters. Staryu was able to destroy the Mega Drain with the barrage of bubbles.

"Butterfree, use Gust! Follow it up with Mega Drain!" Ash tells Butterfree who rushes to complete the combo.

"Staryu, stop it with Thunderbolt!" Butterfree's wing's glow and a large gust of air pushes the bubbles away and slows the Thunderbolt enough for Butterfree to dodge it. Mega Drain then hits the Staryu and Staryu takes advantage of the Gust stopping to launch as powerful of a Thunderbolt as it can. Unfortunately, Butterfree isn't strong enough to push through such a powerful super-effective attack and faints.

"Butterfree is unable to battle, Staryu is the winner. As the challenger has already used a Grovyle, he must use that Pokémon to continue this battle." Ash recalls Butterfree and sends out Grovyle almost immediately.

The referee then yells, "Begin!"

"Grovyle, do you think you can use more Leaf Blades?" Ash asks. Grovyle lifts his arm a bit and tries to pool the energy in his leaves, but fails and shakes his head at Ash. "That's ok Grovyle, don't worry. Use Quick Attack to get close, then Mega Drain when you get close enough."

"Staryu, Icy Wind!" Misty yelled, obviously a little worried about how tired Staryu is. Staryu tries to use Icy Wind to slow Grovyle, but misses and gets hit hard in the back with Mega Drain. All of the damage it received from the previous battle, however, was too much to overcome.

"Staryu is unable to battle, Grovyle wins. Gym Leader Misty is unable to continue, The Challenger is the winner." The Referee states. Ash breathes a sigh of relief, this battle was a lot closer than the one with Brock. He returns Grovyle who looks like he might faint any moment, and Misty walks up to him.

"Congratulation Ash, You won the Cerulean Badge, the $5,000, and the Water Pulse TM." She gives him the badge and tm. "You should get the money transferred to your league account later today sometime. I know you probably don't need it since Froakie has definitely learned Water Pulse by now, but TMs are usually much easier to use for teaching Pokémon moves."

"Actually," Ash started, "He evolved into a Frogadier right after my match with Brock. I don't think he has actually mastered Water Pulse yet, but he definitely has a good grasp of it."

Misty seemed slightly surprised by this. "Huh, I knew that starters typically evolved quickly after beginning serious training, but I didn't expect him to have really gotten an understanding of the move for a little bit longer." Her smile grew a little, "Guess my advice was really good after all. Anyway, you're making pretty good time for already having your second badge for the season, just don't try and move too fast through the Circuit, you'll need to take some serious time to train after you get your fourth badge."

Ash felt a shiver go down his spine. Usually, a Gym Leader likes to go all out on people rushing through gyms to keep the region's reputation from falling, and if Ash rushes through them all… well he wouldn't want to fight a team of Pokémon at the level of Misty's Starmie quite yet. "Yea, I plan on going to Saffron for a few days before making my way to Celadon, and then going to Fuchsia. Taking such a long route should give me plenty of time to train up an almost full team and get them to a strong enough level. But I am in no hurry to get everything done right away. I don't want to leave everything for last minute, but rushing does no one any good."

"Good," Misty responded, "Too many rookies think it's a good idea to try and go through the gyms at a breakneck pace and very rarely stop to even train, and then when they get manhandled by a gym-trained Pokémon, they don't understand how it happened."

"Thank you, and I'll make sure you see me at the conference." Ash told her with the same determination that filled him after Brock told him about him about getting to the conference. "I have to get Grovyle and Butterfree to the Pokémon Center soon. Thanks for the battle Misty!" With that Ash leaves the gym and rushes to the Pokémon center. Once he made sure his Pokémon were ok after the Gym Battle, he decided to call his mom, and after a fairly standard conversation filled with congratulations, 'I miss you's and 'stay safe's, Ash decided Frogadier could work on mastering Aerial Ace then put some finishing touches on Water Pulse to finally master the move. Butterfree starts trying to use some of the basic Psychic-type abilities his species is known to be able to use, while Grovyle works on his Leaf Blade. After checking his pokedex and learning that most Grovyles and Sceptiles can make their Leaf Blades sharper than swords to cut through a thick jungle tree in one slice, Ash and Grovyle both believe that he should work on that until he can at least cut through some of the small trees that they can find along the routes between cities. Ash also decides that he should buy some status healing items, like paralyze heals and awakenings so Butterfree can practice his powder moves.

A few days pass by, similar to the week before challenging Misty; training in the morning and travelling south to Saffron City, and challenging anyone he could along the way for a little bit more money to be added to his account. Frogadier finally seemed to have mastered Aerial Ace by the end of the first day of traveling, and Butterfree mastered Confusion the following morning, and they were now working on Water Pulse and Psybeam respectively. Ash also remembered to have Butterfree continue practicing his Grass-type attacks, because of how easy it is for a Pokémon to forget how to manipulate energy outside of its own typing, while Grovyle was working on making his Leaf Blade stronger. For now, he can't really cut through anything, but he definitely can't practice the move against Frogadier or Butterfree.

At the end of the second day, Ash decides to set up camp before it gets dark. As he begins setting up his tent and letting his Pokémon out for the night, however, he is approached by a Bulbasaur who while apparently on edge, doesn't seem to want a battle. Bulbasaur walks up to Grovyle, and they have a short conversation before Grovyle walks to Ash and begins making gestures of leaving. Ash looks at him for a moment before turning to Bulbasaur, "Do you want us to leave?" Bulbasaur nods. "Why? Is this your territory?" another nod. "If we promise to not move out of this clearing, can we stay here? It is a little late for us to find another spot." Bulbasaur thinks it over for a minute before nodding, and walking out of the small clearing they were in.

Ash decides to collect some fire wood before it gets too dark, and goes to sleep about an hour and a half after the sun sets. The next day, as Ash is cleaning up his campsite, something the league drilled into every trainers head for safety reasons, he feels the ground rumble slightly. He decides to have Grovyle and Frogadier lead him to what he assumes is a battle. A few minutes of walking through the forest and they come across the Bulbasaur from yesterday battling a group of wild Raticate, and losing badly. Ash takes barely a moment to figure out a course of action, "Butterfree! Frogadier! Take out the Raticate! Grovyle, help me with Bulbasaur." Ash and Grovyle rushed to help Bulbasaur while Butterfree launches a Gust at some of the Raticate, herding them together and Frogadier uses a large Water Pulse to launch the Rat Pokémon a good distance away. Bulbasaur didn't trust them at first, but after a few minutes allowed Ash to heal him. In the end Ash had to use two of his super potions to heal all of Bulbasaur's wounds, and the Pokémon was still exhausted. Ash asks Bulbasaur if it can get back to its den, or does it need help. At first, it shakes its head no, but after a falling after only a few steps he looks at Ash and nods. Bulbasaur ends up guiding them through the forest, turning at seemingly random points. A few times Bulbasaur tells something to one of his Pokémon and they lead Ash around a trap, making Ash wonder if Bulbasaur has a family or if it's just claiming an extra-large territory for itself. As Ash is lead around another trap he realizes they are now in a large clearing with a cabin and small lake next to it, but what immediately catches his attention is the sheer number of Pokémon here, at least 40 first-stage Pokémon are around here. Oddish, a few Bellsprout and Nidoran, even some rare Pokémon such as the Chimchar and Dratini he can see. He also sees a young woman wearing red overalls over a pink t-shirt walking towards him looking a little confused, and he realizes he is still carrying Bulbasaur.

"Hello?" the woman asks him, "Why are you carrying Bulbasaur? Is he ok?"

"He's fine now, just exhausted." Ash told her, "He was battling a couple of Raticate when I found him and had Frogadier and Butterfree fight them off, Grovyle and I healed him as much as we could, but after such a tough battle he couldn't really walk. I brought him here after he collapsed, he guided us through all of his traps."

"Oh man, those Raticate keep trying to sneak in here to get the food, Bulbasaur has been able to fight them off before but if they ambushed him…" She takes Bulbasaur from Ash and after giving him a look as if she was searching for something, gestures for Ash to follow her. "I found Bulbasaur a few years ago while I was traveling to Saffron. He was trying to help some wild Pokémon find their mother after they got separated in a bad storm. After we couldn't find their parents, I decided to make a sanctuary for wild Pokémon. Bulbasaur ended up finding me again a few months ago and he's been a major help. He hates the idea of being caught, but unofficially, he's really my only Pokémon. He never brings a human here, and very rarely does he bring a caught Pokémon. Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Melanie."

"I'm Ash. Are all of these Pokémon wild? Usually anywhere that has this many wild Pokémon would have a lot of battles for territory." Ash looks around at the Pokémon again, this time taking note that the Dratini and Chimchar look really sad.

"Well, most of the time Bulbasaur can keep any battle for territory under control. For a wild Pokémon, he is actually very skilled." She tells him. They go in the cabin and she places Bulbasaur on a cushion, letting him rest.

"Hey, Melanie? What's up with that Chimchar and Dratini? They look really sad, aren't their species normally cheerful?" Ash asks her

Melanie sighs before looking at the two and answering him. "Dratini is only a few weeks old, apparently she lost her mother to some poachers and managed to escape, Bulbasaur found her a week ago stumbling through the forest and brought her here. As for Chimchar, apparently his trainer released him, Bulbasaur didn't tell me why, but I assume it's a very personal thing however."

Ash looks at Grovyle for a moment, wondering if it is another stupid reason. "Hey Grovyle!" Ash calls him, "I think you should talk to the Chimchar, he might have a past like yours" Grovyle's head immediately snaps to the Chimchar before looking back at Ash and nodding.

Ash turns back to Melanie and tells her how he caught Grovyle, and understandably she is horrified. "Who would release a pure Grass-type in the Viridian Forest?! That's as close to attempted murder as you can get!"

"Yea, I know. His previous trainer probably thought his half formed Aerial Ace would protect him, or he didn't care." Ash shakes his head trying to calm himself, "I hope he never sees his previous trainer again. If he does, I don't know if I could stop him. Anyway, would you mind if I talk to Chimchar in a little bit? Dratini is way too young to be able to battle yet, dragons need to be like two years old before they can really use any moves besides Tackle reliably. But if Chimchar was abandoned by his trainer, I might be able to help him. Actually, do you have a phone I can use? I might have an idea for Dratini."

Melanie smiles, "Sure Ash, if Chimchar says ok, you can take him with you. As for the phone, yes it's in the other room, why? Do you know a Dragon breeder?"

"Well, no not a breeder. But I do know Professor Oak has a Dragonite who loves young ones. And he might be willing to take it in, if it just lost its mother."

Melanie gasped, "He has a Dragonite? Wow, I didn't know that."

"Not surprising," Ash chuckled, "Most people forget that before he was the regional Professor, he was the final Elite Four member, back when the order of who could challenge them was decided by who was the stronger trainer. I think he used a Flying team, kind of like Lances, but with less Dragon-Like Flying-types."

"Wooow." Melanie is a little star struck at this information. To be labeled as the final Elite Four member was akin to be called the Champion, at least before they abolished the pre-determined order of the Elite Fours about twenty years ago.

An hour later Ash and Professor Oak are finally able to chat.

"A newborn Dratini, Ash?" Professor Oak is a little surprised. Ash has somehow found a surprising number of rare Pokémon very early in his journey. "No wonder it is depressed, even though they don't rely on their mothers like baby Kangaskhan do, Dragon types need at least one of their parents to teach them how to differentiate all of the energies inside of them."

"I know Professor," Ash said, "that's why I called you. Do you think you're Dragonite could take in Dratini? I know she loves young Pokémon and wouldn't hesitate if one needed him."

Professor Oak leans back in his chair, thinking over the different consequences of taking in a newborn Dratini. "Well, I think she has been wanting to have a child of her own for a short while now, someone to pass on what she learned while we were training. I'll have to talk it over with her first, but I doubt she'll say no. But please, do not mention this to Dratini. If Dragonite ends up not agreeing, it would absolutely crush her."

"Of course professor, I'll call you again in about an hour and a half if that's ok"

"That's fine Ash, I should have her answer by then. Talk to you soon."

"Bye"

Ash hung up the phone hoping that Dragonite said yes, but knowing he has nothing he can do about it. But now, comes his talk with Chimchar. Hopefully Chimchar agrees to come with him, he would be an amazing Pokémon to train. Not to mention it would help with covering what his team could handle. With that, he walked outside to find Chimchar sitting with not only Grovyle, but Frogadier as well, and they were all talking with each other. Ash looks around for a moment before seeing Butterfree talking with a small group of Caterpie as well.

Well, here goes nothing. "Hey Chimchar? Do you think we could talk for a minute? I wanna ask you a few things." Chimchar nodded at him, looking a little happier than he did when Ash arrived. "You had a trainer before, right?" Chimchar looked down and nodded again, "Was there a reason they released you? Or was it just because they didn't want to train you?" Chimchar thought on that for a minute, before shrugging. So probably a little bit of both. "Would you like to come with us? I'll be able to scan you properly and see what moves you know, maybe we can help you work on them." Chimchar looks at Grovyle and Frogadier for a second before hesitantly nodding. Ash catches Chimchar without much fanfare and after releasing him, scans him only to be shocked at the moves he sees Chimchar has.

"Ember, Flame Wheel, Heat Wave, Shadow Claw, Dig, and Iron Tail?!" This Chimchar is able to use three moves outside of its type¬. 'Damn,' Ash thought, 'whoever was training him may have got him to know three non-same type moves, but they are all too strong for a first stage Pokémon to safely know.' One of the things that was hammered into him at the school was, if you raise a Pokémon's power too quickly in its initial stages, you risk them missing out on a lot of their power in the other stages of their evolution. Ash asked Chimchar after a moment, tilting his head in confusion. "The moves you know are impressive, but are you ok with that many powerful moves?" Chimchar tilts his head for a moment and shrugs. Ash thinks for a moment. "If Bulbasaur says it's ok, would you like to have a battle before we leave? That way I can see how well you know your moves and how you like to battle. Along with being able to see if they've been detrimental to your growth, but don't worry, whether you win or lose I promise we'll help you become the strongest you can" Chimchar thinks for a second before hopping up and nodding excitedly. Thankfully, Bulbasaur lets them, but makes Ash promise to keep the younger and weaker Pokémon away from the battlefield.

"Alright. Frogadier, you up for a battle?" After Frogadier jumps to the makeshift battle field and both of them prepare to battle.

Frogadier starts by launching a Water Pulse at Chimchar, which reminds Ash to start teaching Frogadier how to use Surf soon. As Ash refocuses on the battle he notices Chimchar used Dig to avoid Water Pulse. "Frogadier, get ready to jump away as soon as you feel the ground move." Ash tells Frogadier not a second too soon, as the ground break revealing Chimchar trying to attack Frogadier, but Frogadier is out of his range. Unfortunately as Frogadier launches another Water Pulse at Chimchar, Chimchar avoids again with Dig. This goes on until there are quite a lot of holes being used for Dig, and neither of them are showing any signs of being tired yet.

"Frogadier, as soon as you feel the ground move, use Aerial Ace this time, we can't let him keep going underground!" Ash says, and the plan works flawlessly. At least, Until Chimchar realizes that that Frogadier is charging instead of avoiding this time. He reacts by charging a Shadow Claw to try and intercept the attack, but because of how close Frogadier already was, he has no chance of stopping the attack and both Pokémon take the hit. They both stumble for a moment before Frogadier recovers and launches a Bubble knocking the still recovering Chimchar away and ending the battle. After healing Chimchar, he's happy to see his other Pokémon welcoming the new addition, even Butterfree who joined them a few minutes into the battle. . Ash checks the time and realizes it is almost time to call Professor Oak again so tells his Pokémon to watch out for each other while he calls the Professor. He is ecstatic when Professor Oak tells him Dragonite agreed and he can send over the Dratini if she agrees.

Ash almost runs back out, only stopping when he thinks of how Dratini might react if he rushes towards her like that. He sees her curled up near a tree facing away from everyone. Walking up to her slowly he gets her attention, "Dratini? Do you think we could talk for a few minutes? I have an offer for you." Dratini doesn't even actually move, just moves her head so she can see Ash. "I know what happened to your mother, and that is a horrible thing to happen. But you are going to need someone to teach you how to use the different energies inside you. What would you say if I could introduce you to a really strong Dragonite who wants to teach you everything she knows?" Dratini perked up a little bit at this, while not a replacement for her mother in anyway, Ash knew that Dragons were always attracted to the idea of getting stronger, even newborns. "She's really nice with kids, and is on the level of a Champion's Pokémon." He tells her, "That means she was the strongest Dragonite in the region." Dratini's eyes widen quite a bit and after a moment she accepts Ash's offer. "Awesome. Would you mind if I caught you until we reached Saffron? That would make it a lot easier to get there without issues." Dratini nods and let Ash capture her. Apparently the prospect of getting to a strong teacher outweighed anything Dratini had against being caught.

"Alright guys, we should head for Saffron as soon as possible, I'll feel a lot safer once we get Dratini to Professor Oak." Ash tells his team. "Chimchar, do you think you'll be alright if I use a few potions? Or would you like to rest here for a little bit?" Chimchar pokes the bruise on his stomach a few times and then jumps on to Ash's shoulder and points forward. "So you're good for now?" Chimchar nods. "Alright. Let's go say good bye to Melanie and Bulbasaur guys."

After saying goodbyes to both of them, and explaining how Dratini decided to come with him for a little while so he could learn from a strong Dragonite, which made Bulbasaur very happy, Ash figures out that Saffron is only about a 6 hour trip away. Ash decides to hurry along and not bother training his Pokémon or battling trainers until he get to Saffron. As it is, he'll probably barely make it to the Center in time before it closes.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Later that day, as Ash enters Saffron City he spends a moment taking in how large it is, Saffron is the largest city in Kanto after all, with Celadon coming a close second and being more memorable for the department store. By the time Ash enters the Pokémon Center, nearly an hour later, the sun has already set and Ash is worried he may have to spend the night in one of the routes connected to Saffron. But after Nurse Joy tells him she still has a few rooms available, he relaxes. After getting his room key, Ash decides to call Professor Oak to transfer Dratini, both her and Dragonite are probably getting impatient by now. The whole process takes barely a minute and Ash is left watching Dratini crawl up Dragonite's body through the video phone. "Wow Professor, those two sure look like they bonded quickly." Ash says.

"Indeed," Oak replies, "I assume their instincts allowed them to form a bond so fast. Dragonite's motherly instincts and Dratini's instincts to learn from a powerful dragon. Well, was there anything else you needed Ash?"

"No, not right now, Professor. I just couldn't let that Dratini suffer like that, not if I could help it." Ash tells him.

"I hope you never lose that sense of compassion, Ash. It's very rare, nowadays." Oak says, getting a look of nostalgia in his eyes, making Ash think now might be a decent time to end the call before Professor Oak gets lost in story-telling again. After they say goodbye, Ash goes to Nurse Joy to heal his Pokémon and heads to his room, deciding to call his mom in the morning.

When Ash gets up the following morning, he decides it might be a good idea to call his mom. It wouldn't be a good idea for his mom to know he called Professor Oak last night and didn't call her. She can get a little angry when he doesn't call her regularly. Thankfully she's ok with it this time, so Ash decides to train his Pokémon a bit. Chimchar's almost at the limit his body can handle, with all of his moves being some of the stronger ones that can be taught, but his body was forced to grow in power in order to handle all of that power without exhausting himself. However because of that, his defenses are nowhere close to what they should be to match his strength. Ash takes his Pokémon to one of the open fields they have and explains to them that for the next week or so they'll be sparring with Chimchar to try and increase his defenses. During this week, Ash learns something interesting about Chimchar, his Blaze ability works slightly different than other Pokémon with Blaze. When Chimchar is down to his last legs and pushes to continue, Chimchar's power nearly doubles. And while most other Pokémon simply gain a small fiery-red aura around their bodies, Chimchar's tail flame explodes and he becomes cloaked almost entirely in fire, and when the fire cloak dies, Chimchar passes out from exhaustion. The first time it happened, Ash needed Professor Oak's opinion on what it could be and Professor Oak came up with a theory.

"It might have to do with Chimchar being taught such strong moves so quickly," Professor Oak explained. "Shadow Claw and Iron Tail take a lot of energy and concentration for Pokémon that aren't Ghost or Steel type. With Chimchar increasing his power to be able to use those moves, it might have also cause his Blaze to over work itself to make him feel a significant boost in power, leading to the explosion of fire from his tail flame. It might be a good idea to train Chimchar extensively with Blaze once his power and defenses even out, that means very harsh training but if he faints from the power decrease, it will definitely be worth increasing his endurance with the technique."

"Thanks Professor," Ash sighed out, relieved the problem was relatively simple, "I was a little worried because I didn't think Blaze normally was that powerful and when Chimchar fainted the first time I thought something was wrong."

During that week, Frogadier started learning Surf, since his Water Pulse was nearly mastered, and Grovyle finally learned how to sharpen his Leaf Blades to the point he could cut small boulders. Ash had him working on Giga Drain, the strongest version of Absorb, before starting on Energy Ball, with the two being almost the same move, except Energy Ball being a little more uncontrolled which allows more power to be put into it. He also spent about half an hour to make sure he didn't forget how to use Aerial Ace or Rock Tomb. Butterfree also mastered Psybeam, able to charge up Psychic-type energy to himself within a seconds notice.

As Ash checks out of the Pokémon Center, he sees Gary and rushes over to catch up with his friend.

"Oh, so you're here too?" Gary started, "I was wondering if we were ever gonna meet up, I know I started a few days after you, but I didn't realize you were gonna be racing through everything, Ash."

"Well, I haven't really been racing through everything. I just haven't had any trouble with the gyms yet." Ash told him a little embarrassed.

"I know what you mean," Gary smirked, "Brock wasn't much trouble with Squirtle, did he use that weird Geodude on you too? It almost beat Squirtle, but he was able to handle Brock, all on his own. And then that Misty girl was kind of tough, I'm just glad I took the time to teach Squirtle how to battle underwater. Did you have to do that with Froakie?"

"No, I ended up looking it up and the Froakie line doesn't really handle battling underwater too well, they can, but they always prefer to be above land."

"Ah, makes sense, they probably fight like Poliwraths." Gary said before his smirk widened a bit, "Well, since we're both here, how about a battle? We can even use the old stakes we used to use back when Grandpa would let us practice battle."

That got Ash's attention. Both Gary and Ash had a name that was used to embarrass them if they ever misbehaved in front of their sister, or mother respectively. So they eventually made a bet that allowed the other one to call them that name for a week, just because of how much the other hated it.

"Hmm. Alright Gary, let's battle. It'll be a nice way to see where I stand." Ash grinned back at him

Ten minutes later they were standing across from each other ready to start their battle. Ash decided to start with Butterfree, she's his best ranged fighter at the moment. They both release their Pokémon and Gary surprises Ash with a Kadabra, "Where did you catch one of those? They always go out of their way to avoid humans." Ash asked him

Gary chuckled as he tells Ash, "Well, I was lucky enough to come across an Abra that wanted to get stronger more than it wanted to sleep." He outright laughed when Ash's eyes bulged. That's a typical reaction really, finding an Abra that wants to do anything more than sleep is very rare, one that wants to battle is near impossible to find. "Let's get back into the battle. Psybeam."

"Counter it with your own Psybeam, Butterfree. Then follow up with Gust." Ash winced as the Psybeam collided, but wasn't very concerned as Gust was able to push the Kadabra around. "Mega Drain."

"Kadabra, dodge it and use Confusion. When it's confused finish with Psybeam." Gary commanded

"Don't let your guard down. Push it back with Gust." Ash calmly ordered.

After a short psychic battle between Butterfree and Kadabra, in which Kadabra was able to push Butterfree back, Butterfree hit Kadabra with a Gust that lifted Kadabra almost to Butterfree's height 20 feet in the air and then let it drop. The fall was a bit too much for Kadabra and Gary recalled it.

"Dammit." Gary says, "Kadabra evolved a few days ago, and I was hoping he would be a little more battle ready. Time for round two! Let's go Pidgeotto."

"Butterfree, return." Ash calmly calls, before thinking for a minute on who to use. "Well, I guess it would be a good test. Go, Grovyle."

Gary's eyes widened. "Where in the hell did you get a Grovyle? Even in Hoenn that would be the equivalent to finding an Abra, the hell dude?"

"Grovyle was abandoned in Viridian Forest." Ash told him, not mentioning saving him from the swarm. "I helped him out and he decided to join my team."

Gary smirked at Ash, "Well, as much as it is cool that you found such a rare Pokémon, especially in Kanto, you kind of forgot one of the most important rules in a battle. Pidgeotto, Wing Attack!"

"Grovyle, use Rock Tomb to fill the field." Ash told him with narrowed eyes, he might have had Grovyle practice battling a flying foe with Butterfree, but Butterfree and Pidgeotto are very different battlers. He watches as Grovyles arms glow lightly brown, similar to Poliwrath's did with Rock Slide, but a duller and thinner color. Ash notes that as the rocks for Rock Tomb are falling around Pidgeotto, it seems to have trouble paying attention to the rocks and charging its attack.

Gary seemed a little annoyed at that. "Pidgeotto just learned Wing Attack a few days ago, looks like we have to work on charging up the power faster. Fight it at a distance, Gust!"

"Get behind some of the rocks that piled up, then use Aerial Ace. If there is an opening use Rock Tomb."

Pidgeotto didn't really stand a chance. After he ended the Gust, which admittedly was pretty strong, Grovyle shot out of his protection and slammed into Pidgeotto's gut with Aerial Ace, and while it was recovering, used another Rock Tomb. This time, with Pidgeotto recovering from the previous attack, there was no way for him to avoid the super effective move. He was covered in the small boulders, before pushing his way through, looking like he was about to keel over.

"Grovyle, get ready for Mega Drain."

"Wait!" Gary recalled Pidgeotto. "That battle was over. Give me a sec to recall my Pokémon next time, yea?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if you were gonna have him keep fighting or not." Ash told him, "In any case, let's move on to the next round."

"Sure, Growlithe, battle time!" Gary called out.

"Frogadier, you're up." Ash says, "I don't wanna have Chimchar battle until we can get his defenses up,"

"Frogadier, Water Pulse." Ash started the battle.

"Dig!" Was all that Gary said.

As Frogadier launched Water Pulse at Growlithe, it easily dodged it by going underground.

"Just like practice Frogadier, wait and listen." Ash reminded him.

As the Growlithe jumped out of the ground for Dig, Frogadier jumped and used Water Pulse directly on it, but Growlithe counters with a close range Flame Burst which nullifies it and fills the field with steam.

"Just keep listening Frogadier, you'll hear it eventually." A few minutes go by and Ash hears nothing until he hears a Pokémon emerging from a Dig. When that happens he sees Frogadier jump out of the steam, arms glowing with Rock energy, and him launching Rock Tombs down. The steam clears and he sees Growlithe dodging the rocks easily gaining ground with its teeth covered in sparks. 'Thunder Fang', Ash realizes. "Frogadier, don't let him bite you. Aerial Ace." Frogadier uses the rocks around the ground to gain momentum for Aerial Ace and slams into Growlithe's side, and following up with a Water Pulse. Knocking it out and out of the field at the same time. Frogadier returns to Ash's side and looks fine, outside of being a little winded.

"Dammit." Gary is a little upset, "Well, your Pokémon look like they're coming along nicely."

"Yours too." Ash tells him, "I was a little worried when Growlithe was using Thunder Fang for a moment."

"Yea, but I still have to work on his speed a bit before I'll let him evolve. Wartortle would have been a better matchup."

Ash grinned, "So how strong has your Wartortle gotten, Gare-bear." Ash finishes laughing. Neither one of them can hold in laughing at the face the other makes when they're called those names.

"Yea, yea, laugh it up. I'll be winning the next one. I'd say Wartortle is a little stronger than your Frogadier, but a lot slower. Would be a tough match-up for sure." Gary told him, not looking very happy with the outcome.

"Well, I think I'm going to move on to Celadon," Ash says, "I wanna battle Erika and then take 16 to Fuchsia. Which way are you going?"

Gary thinks for a moment before telling him, "I'm gonna stay here for a few days and train, then move on to Vermillion. Why do you wanna go to Celadon already? You know the leader is going to have trained a bunch of Pokémon to handle Bugs and Flying-types right? Butterfree won't stand a chance all on its own."

"Well, I caught a Chimchar about a week ago. But his previous trainer had him on the fast track to evolving." Ash said and Gary looked a little mad at that. One thing the league tried to hammer into everyone's head was that if a Pokémon is forced to gain power quickly, when they evolve they will be nowhere close to what they should be in either power or defenses. And, unfortunately, the fast power gain can sometimes trick the Pokémon into evolving too quickly. Making it incredibly weaker to the rest of its species. "I've been working with him to boost his defenses to even him out a little, but I think he might evolve soon anyway. His power is just off the charts for a Chimchar."

"Well," Gary tells him, "Next time we battle you better use Chimchar to fight Growlithe. Something tells me those two would have an awesome battle."

"Sure Gary, see ya later."

With that they split up and head separate ways, Ash beginning his walk to Route 7, and Gary going to the Pokémon Center.

Ash spends the next few days traveling to Celadon and continuing everyone's training. Chimchar continues to spar with Grovyle and Frogadier, and after just three days he evolves into Monferno. Thankfully, he seems to not be suffering any down sides from his previous trainer's regimen.

Butterfree started working on Psychic, but has issues keeping the move non-physical. Psybeam is a move that focuses the psychic energies in the air and in the users' body into a funnel that confuses the target and hurts them through the physical aspect of Psychic-type energy. Psychic, however, is purely non-physical. It focuses on the targets mental barriers and applies pressure to them to deal damage to the opponent's mind. And since Butterfree isn't a Psychic-type, he has to gather Psychic-type power in the air to augment the small psychic energies he has in his body to connect to his opponent's mind. The problem however, is that there isn't any way for him to help teach Butterfree how to use internal and external energies at the same times. There is no help with that in the pokedex, and it wasn't something that the league ever taught, assuming that most Pokémon either learn it naturally or can learn it through being tutored by another.

While Ash is walking, he notices that there are large rain clouds closing in and checks the GPS in his Pokédex for any nearby Pokémon Centers. He is in luck since there is one just a mile further up the road. He decides to jog there so the rain doesn't have a chance to catch up to him, but stops when he sees a Charmander on a high rock, just above head level. Taking note of the storm, Ash tries to convince the Charmander to find shelter, but it adamantly refuses. Thinking that using a fellow fire type might be able to talk him down, Ash sends out Monferno, who immediately tries talking the Charmander down. But Charmander says no, only with more words. Monferno takes a moment, then walks up to Ash pointing to Grovyle's poke ball. Ash figures Grovyle might be able to help since he is usually calmer and more convincing. After a while, Grovyle and Monferno are able to talk Charmander into coming with them, as the rain storm has caught up and it starts raining. Thankfully, they all get to the Pokémon Center before any harm comes to Charmander or Monferno's tail flames. Ash decides to leave his Pokémon out to watch Charmander while he goes to Nurse Joy to rent a room for the night. While he is gone, he doesn't expect for Charmander to overhear a trainer talking, nor does he think that the conversation may have any effect on him.

"Woah, this storm is getting bad, don't ya think Damian?" The Pokémon heard.

"Eh, I've seen worse. This isn't that bad of one, if I still had that Charmander I still would be out there training it right now." Someone they assume to be Damian says.

"Wait, You got rid of it? Why? Didn't the thing have some strong fire attacks?" The first person says.

"Sometimes, the damn thing had no control of its power at all." At this point Monferno notices Charmander starts getting a little sad. "And get this," Damian continues, "For all the power it can pull up sometimes, the useless thing couldn't even learn Dragon Rage! I mean, what kind of Charmander can't learn such a weak move. I'm glad I broke its poke ball. Let it rot in the wild, that's all it's good for, really." The two walk off after that and Monferno gets more worried when he sees Charmander looking at the floor, crying, and walks over to comfort him. Grovyle figures out that the guy they were listening to, was talking about Charmander, and tells Charmander that Ash would be more than willing to help Charmander out. Grovyle tells both Monferno and Charmander about how his previous trainer wanted him to learn Aerial Ace on his own as a Treecko and when he couldn't learn it in a week, his trainer abandoned them in the Viridian Forest, and since he didn't know any of Kanto, he was trapped in a forest filled with Beedrill, for days, and had no idea where he could find any water or food. How one day as he was almost overrun with Beedrill for stepping too close to their territory, Ash and Froakie ran out and saved him from the Beedrill. And when they learned why he was abandoned, they took him in and immediately and helped him with the move until now he has it perfected almost as well as he does the moves of his type. Monferno, hearing this story for the first time, is a little surprised but able to cope with the story much faster because of his own experience, but Charmander stares at Grovyle in wonder, 'Why would a human risk his life for a Pokémon?'. His past experience with Damian gave him no illusions that Damian would help him if he needed it. Charmander is even more shocked when Monferno begins his story. How his previous trainer trained him day in and day out to learn the strongest moves he could and how he couldn't keep up with them as a Chimchar, his Inner Energy had to play double time just to keep up and he probably would have been one of the weakest Monferno ever because of how fast he was going. And when he was being knocked out too quickly, his previous trainer released him and killed his self-esteem because of his failings. But in just 2 short weeks, Ash was able to fix the most of the damage done to him by his previous trainer and when he evolved he became even more powerful than he thought he would have become normally. Charmander asks them if they truly think Ash would train him too, and they answer yes, without any hesitation. It's at this point that Ash finds them and Charmander immediately starts trying to get Ash to catch him. Of course, Ash is a little clueless here, so Grovyle points to himself and Monferno, then Ash, then Charmander, then Ash.

"You want me to train you, Charmander? Why?" Charmander points to Monferno and Grovyle and chatters excitedly. Ash figures out the situation after looking at Grovyle's angered expression and Monferno's sad one, "Oh, you were someone's Pokémon, weren't you?" Charmander immediately loses his happy expression and nods sadly. "Don't worry Charmander, just like these two, if you want I'll do my best to make you the strongest you can be." Charmander pictures himself as a Charizard blasting his opponents away with Flamethrowers and becomes determined to show Ash that he can do. "Welcome to the team, buddy." And with that, Ash captures Charmander. "I should probably go make sure you are all ok. We have been training hard recently." So Ash heads to Nurse Joy, healing his Pokémon and calling his mom and then Professor Oak. When Ash tells him that he caught a previously owned Charmander, Oak becomes worried.

"Ash, Charmander are Pokémon that become very prideful and very temperamental when they evolve. Mostly from the excess dragon energy that they begin producing. If he has already had training, I'm not sure you would have enough of a bond for it to carry over."

"What about Yellow's Charmander?" Ash asks, remembering one of the other trainers that started with him, "Will she have an issue when her Charmander evolves?"

"Well, no. Typically Charmander are fine as starters because they can form a bond very quickly when they are around the age we give them to starting trainers. They are able to be forgiving if you make something they perceive as a mistake in battling, perfect for a new trainer. When they evolve however, if you do not have a strong enough bond, they will ignore you, questioning many of your decisions. That is exclusively part of the extra Dragon-type energy they create when they evolve." Oak spends a moment thinking before telling Ash, "I want to send over my Charizard to you for a few days. He should be able to help train the Charmander faster than if you did it on your own. And, if dragons attach the idea of you to becoming more powerful, they become much easier to train. They understand that to gain strength, you can help them best. This should help Charmeleon from crushing your spirits when he evolves. Good luck, Ash." After the semi-lecture from Professor Oak, he sends over his Charizard. Unless Ash is mistaken, Oak only has one Charizard. His own starter. And imagining how powerful it must be make Ash a little light headed. Will it decide he is worthy to help? Will it just fly back to Oak? He knows one thing though, if Charizard does decide to help, Charmander and Monferno better pay as close attention to him as possible, because they will find no better teacher.

The next morning is clear, so Ash releases all of his Pokémon and Charizard to train. After explaining the situation with Charizard, he seems more than happy to take Charmander and Monferno under his wing, both figuratively and literally. While Charizard teaches Charmander Dragon Rage and helps Monferno regulate power with training by using Incinerate, apparently the move works by making a large fireball and pushes it at the opponent with a slightly weaker flame. Ash has Grovyle begin working on Acrobatics, a move similar to Aerial Ace, only without the need for Grovyle to jump off of walls or trees. Where Aerial Ace requires the user to jump off of different surfaces to gain height, Acrobatics uses the Flying-type energy to allow the user to make quick changes in direction, even in mid-air with nothing to grab or jump off of. Frogadier, meanwhile, learns Low Kick while Butterfree begins to show his first time of struggling with a move and still can't figure out how to pull enough psychic energy together to use Psychic.

A few days later, with Charizard and Ash switching days for training Charmander and Monferno, they arrive at Celadon City. When Ash gets to the Pokémon Center and heals his Pokémon, he decides to train for a few more days, letting Monferno get more accustomed to his power, and training Charmander a little bit more. Monferno and Butterfree are strong enough for a Gym, but it would be a good opportunity for Charmander to begin battling with him. As Monferno learns Incinerate, he teaches Frogadier Dig, and Grovyle finishes learning Acrobatics. Ash notices that Grovyle found a small twig somewhere and hasn't been without it for the past few days. After looking through Grovyle's pokedex information, he finds that some Pokémon of the Treecko-line will have a small twig that they keep with them at all times, apparently it is a status symbol for certain members of the species. After training for a few days longer, Ash deems them ready for the Celadon and heads to the gym


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

When he arrives he notices that there are a lot of trainers leaving and begins to wonder why.

"I wouldn't bother challenging her if you only have Flying or Bug types. She'll eat you alive." A random trainer warns him.

"I'm confident that my Pokémon are strong enough to handle the gym." Ash tells him

He only laughs at Ash. "Your funeral." And he walks off, probably to the Center to heal his Pokémon.

"Well guys." Ash says, hyping himself up, "Let's get this over with."

It takes Ash only a few minutes to get ready to battle the leader. While he is waiting he examines the field. It is mostly a plain, open field, however there are multiple trees around the edges of the battlefield. Apparently the leader scared enough trainers away that the waiting line is incredibly short, and Ash only has to wait about ten minutes. Ash walks into the challenger box and waits for a moment before a League referee and a woman maybe 10 years older than him, wearing a red and green kimono walk up. The woman introduces herself as Erika and tells him the battle will be three-on-three, according to his file, two-on-two matches haven't caused him any trouble in his previous gym battles.

"The Celadon Gym Challenge of Ash Ketchum vs Gym Leader Erika Hanabira, for the Rainbow Badge is about to begin. This will be a three-on-three match, with the Leader having no substitutions. This battle will be decided when one side has run out of usable Pokémon. Are both trainers ready?" The Official announced.

They both nodded and released their Pokémon, Ash choosing Butterfree, and Erika choosing a Weepinbell.

Erika sighs and says, "Well… At least it's not another Pidgeotto. Weepinbell, use Sunny Day"

"Butterfree, Psybeam." Ash commands, a little upset that Erika is disregarding Butterfree so quickly. "I may be using a type advantage but Butterfree is still pretty strong."

Weepinbell doesn't move as the Psybeam gets closer but it spreads its leaves and moves much faster than a Pokémon like that has any right to move.

Erika calmly says, "Sludge Bomb."

"Butterfree, throw it back with Gust!" Butterfree creates a powerful gust of wind and circulates it like a tornado before pushing it towards Weepinbell and the Sludge Bomb.

Erika smiles and says, "Weather Ball." with the same tone as before. Ash watches as Weepinbell launches a small ball of normal energy into the air and is mesmerized as it seemingly absorbs the power from Sunny Day before falling towards the Gust, twice as big as it was before and filled with Fire-type energy. His mesmerized look turns to horror as the Weather Ball comes into contact with the Sludge Bomb and explodes, with all of the heat transforming Gust into a powerful fire tornado, and it is currently moving towards Butterfree with no sign of stopping!

"Butterfree, get out of there!" Ash yells in horror, an attack like that could seriously injure Butterfree, if not kill him. However, to his shock, Butterfree's wings begin glowing with flying energy, more flying energy than Butterfree has ever gathered for Gust. 'Is he trying to push the tornado back with a stronger Gust?' Ash thinks, before Butterfree flaps his wings one time and Ash sees a crescent of Flying-type energy that cuts the fire tornado in half, tearing the attack apart and stopping it completely.

"Woah, Butterfree that was Air Slash!" Ash told him, but he was already thinking of pulling him from the battle, he looked exhausted after using that move. But, he looks at him, full of pride and determination, and Ash can't bring himself to recall him with the look he has… he's going to complete this match.

"Weepinbell, Weather Ball again." Erika says still calm but a little rattled that the combination attack turned quite so powerful. 'It seems that he wasn't wrong about his Butterfree.' Erika thinks. 'If that was a weak Gust it would have just dissipated like any other rookie's Gust, not turn into a freaking Fire Tornado.'

"Dodge until Sunny Day wears off, then use the strongest Psybeam you can to finish it off." Ash decided that was the best course of action. Weepinbell is too fast and too strong for Butterfree to handle, especially with being exhausted from that attack.

"Go all out Weepinbell," Erika said, still sounding completely at ease. "Finish this quickly."

Thankfully, Butterfree is able to dodge the Sludge Bombs and Weather Balls until Sunny Day runs out. And with one powerful Psybeam, he is able to knock out Weepinbell.

"Weepinbell is unable to battle, Butterfree is the winner." The referee states.

Both Ash and Erika recall their Pokémon, with Butterfree almost falling to the ground in exhaustion, and Ash tells the referee that Butterfree is out of the battle. He used too much energy with Air Slash and he wouldn't be able to handle another battle.

Erika looked at him strangely for a moment. "Are you really a rookie trainer?"

Ash nodded, "Yea, I started a little over a month and a half ago. I just listened when Professor Oak told me the smarter ways to train your Pokémon."

"Well, you've trained them well." Erika complimented him, "Tangela, time to shine."

"Monferno, you're up." Both trainers released their Pokémon at the same time.

"A Monferno? Interesting find. You don't see many of those outside of Sinnoh." Erika tells him.

"Yea, this one had a trainer before me, but they didn't really know how to train a Chimchar correctly and ended up releasing him. I caught him just over 2 weeks ago, thankfully I was able to fix the mistakes his last trainer had before he evolved."

"Hmm, we'll see about that, won't we? We are still battling however, Tangela! Sleep Powder!" Tangela shot out a few vines from its body, with a lot of powder falling off of each vines.

"Stop it, Incinerate." Monferno shot out a large flame, adjusting the heat and intensity afterwards.

"Tangela, Ingrain and Protect." Tangela shot several vines into the ground and when the flames of Incinerate got close, Tangela became covered in a veil of Normal-type energy that completely stopped the attack. As the energy from Protect died down, Monferno used Incinerate again but was blocked this time by Tangela glowing with Rock-type energy and tossing large balls of the energy at the flame, pushing it back and hitting Monferno with them. 'Ancient Power, maybe?' Ash thinks, before saying, "Monferno, Mach Punch." Thankfully, Monferno learn that move as soon as they evolve and always have an instinctual grasp of the move. That fact lets Monferno and Infernape perfectly learn how to use Fighting-type energy.

"Block with Vine Whip." Erika counters

Monferno shoots forward with his fist glowing the maroon color of Fighting-type energy, but as it gets close, many of Tangela's vines wrap around it and stop the attack in its place. And without a word from Erika, Tangela lifts Monferno over itself and then slams him into the ground, repeatedly. After the third Slam, Monferno looks exhausted but Blaze activates and Tangela has to let go of Monferno or risk burning its vines. Ash takes the chance to attack.

"Monferno! Flame Wheel! Full power." The flames from Blaze increase and Monferno charges at Tangela, uprooting its vines and knocking it out it one hit from the over-powered flames.

"Tangela is unable to battle, Monferno wins!"

"Well, that's a strong Blaze." Erika says, noting the almost feral look in Monferno's eyes she adds, "But it doesn't seem to have the control to adequately use it. Parasect. Test them."

What Erika called a Parasect was enormous. Most Parasect are barely over 3 feet tall. This one, however, was easily 5 feet tall, being almost as tall as Erika. If Ash is judging it correctly, it's almost as tall as Professor Oak's Charizard, and isn't that is a scary thought.

"Monferno, Incinerate." Ash says, wanting to defeat that monster before Monferno's Blaze finishes.

"Worry Seed." Erika orders quietly. Parasect answers by channeling Grass-type energy into its claws and shooting two large seeds at Monferno. Monferno burns one away with his attack, however the second seed hits Monferno and seemingly melts into Monferno's chest. Within a moment the fiery cloak surrounding Monferno dies and unfortunately for Monferno, so does his second wind. Monferno, with no power boost from Blaze, collapses from exhaustion.

"What?" Ash couldn't help but asking.

"Monferno is unable to battle, Parasect wins!"

"Worry Seed is a move that changes the targets ability to Insomnia. A surprisingly good counter to one of the so called 'Pinch' abilities." Erika explains.

Ash is a little worried now, he planned to use Charmander, but pitting him against such a large and obviously strong opponent might not be the best idea. He reaches for Grovyle's poke ball before stopping and realizing he can't do that to Charmander. Ash already told Charmander that he would be used for the Gym, and if he goes back on his word now, he may lose all of the trust that they have gained over the past few days. Ash releases Charmander next to him and asks if he wants to fight the Parasect. With Charmander looking much healthier already, Ash feels the battle will be harsh, but winnable. Charmander looks at the Parasect, slightly shocked at its size before nodding.

"Ok Charmander. Be careful though, I know you probably feel much stronger after the last few days but this thing is very strong." Ash told him.

"Begin!"

"Charmander, Flame Burst!"

"Dodge, Throat Chop." Erika commands. Parasect, despite its massive bulk, jumps over the Flame Burst and with its claw glowing with pitch-black energy. Ash tells Charmander to counter with Metal Claw.

"Parasect, let's see their strength." Erika says after a moment of the two being in a stalemate. Suddenly, the top of Parasect starts releasing a lot of spores, to the point that Ash can't really see the field very much, and he can barely make out anything he actually can see.

"It's a pleasant mix of different powder techniques." Erika tells him as the different spores fill the field. "Aromatherapy, Rage Powder, and Poison Powder. This particular combination will stop you from being able to see in on the battle while Parasect and Charmander battle. It will also test how well you have trained your Pokémon on assessing a battle, on controlling themselves, and on how fast they can summon their energy. With Poison Powder slowly sapping away their strength it becomes very difficult for them to focus on the battle if you haven't trained them well."

Ash looks a little worried. "But Charmander hasn't had much training with me, I just caught him less than a week ago. Professor Oak had a mix-up and didn't have enough starters for my class so he got me a Froakie. Charmander! It'll come from behind you, get ready to use Fire Punch! Stay calm and you can do this." He says before calling back to Erika, "Three of my five Pokémon were someone else's first. They were all abandoned for one reason or another and I've been helping them get over what happened. Monferno was one of them. And because of how Monferno and the other one, a Grovyle, have bonded with me, Professor Oak let me train Charmander."

Erika is a little shocked at this, most trainers don't even see the different Starter Pokémon in the wild and no rookie trainer she has seen would have had the same mindset as this one. How in the world did a newbie trainer have such and experience in just a few months of traveling? More than that, why was he being trusted with so many supposedly abused Pokémon? Bonding with two abused Pokémon typically isn't enough for a rookie to train an abused dragon.

"Parasect, three-quarter power. Cross Poison." Erika says

Ash sees a glowing purple claw to the right of Charmander's position and warns him.

"Charmander, 4 O'clock. Dodge the slash and smack it with Fire Punch!"

He waits and thankfully doesn't hear Charmander yell in pain, but does hear Charmander punch Parasect away.

"Alright, Slash." Erika says.

"Listen for it Charmander. You heard it when it got close last time, I can't see it coming this time to warn you." Ash is very worried now, he can't help Charmander see it coming and he can't order it to attack the air. And Poison Powder also makes this whole cloud very worrisome.

He hears Charmander scream out and his blood runs cold, if that Slash had a lot of power in it Charmander could be in a lot of trouble. Thankfully Ash sees Charmander shoot a Flame Burst, presumably from the direction it got hit from. Suddenly, Charmander escapes the cloud but has 2 long gashes along the side of its body, Parasect also comes out of the spore cloud looking a little burned but doesn't seem very affected by the damage.

"Parasect, Venoshock." Erika says

"Charmander! Flame Burst!" Ash yells, if a move such as Venoshock hits Charmander the battle will be over in an instant because of all of the poison in Charmander for the move to aggravate. Thankfully the Flame Burst interrupts the Venoshock and hits Parasect who stumbles back from this one. As it raises its arms, probably to use a healing move of some sort, Ash starts to tell Charmander to stop it, but doesn't have to worry. Charmander launches a Dragon Rage, proof of the help Charizard has given it in the past few days, and Parasect faints.

"Parasect is unable to battle. Gym Leader Erika has no more usable Pokémon. The winner of the match is Ash Ketchum."

Charmander roars and sends a Flame Burst into the air and evolves into Charmeleon. The whole event is eerily similar to the one where Froakie evolved after fighting Brock.

"That was an impressive battle, even if you did rely on type advantages." Erika told him as she approached. "Here is the Rainbow Badge and the TM for Leaf Storm." Erika says as she hands him the items with a smile. "Leaf Storm is a very dangerous move, it requires the user to pour an immense amount of energy into the attack, and it leaves the user much weaker after they use the attack." After that Erika became much more serious. "You should also stay away from the Game Corner, we've had reports of Pokémon theft near there, and with as many rare Pokémon as you have in your team you would be a prime target. The League is investigating it now, but it's always best to be safe."

Ash nods, "Thanks for the warning, I'll make sure to be careful." Ash didn't hang around for very long after that, since there are a few people behind him waiting for their own battle with Erika, and he has Pokémon to heal. When Ash gets to the Pokémon Center, the same trainer who told him to not bother with the gym laughs as he walks in. "So Erika beat ya? Can't say I'm surprised. She eats little rookies like you for breakfast." Ash just raises an eyebrow, "Who said I lost? I even have the Rainbow Badge to prove it." With that Ash showed that he did earn the Rainbow Badge. The other trainer glared at him like Ash somehow personally insulted him and walks off. Ash just looks at where he went wondering that guy's problem was before heading to Nurse Joy, asking her to heal his Pokémon.

When Ash gave Nurse Joy his Pokémon to heal, he thinks of Professor Oak's warning about Charmeleon's bond with him and wonders if his bond was enough in the short time the two had together before he evolved. The next day, during training, he noticed Charmeleon didn't really listen to him, and he always seems to have a bad attitude when Ash says something to him. Charizard, who has been watching this with an unhappy look, walks up to Charmeleon and begins talking to him. If the growls and near roars can be considered talking. Ash notices Charmeleon looking ashamed for a moment before beginning to work with Charizard on Dragon Breath. A few hours later, at the end of training, Charmeleon walks up to Ash and apologizes, he clearly isn't proud with how he acted at the start of the day and Ash tells him that it's fine. As long as he listens when it is time to train or battle, Ash can handle a bit of attitude, he just needs to know when he needs Pokémon, they will have his back. Ash spends a few more days training his Pokémon, he teaches Grovyle Leaf Storm and Butterfree masters Air Slash and Energy Ball in a day. However Psychic still eludes him and Ash makes the decision to ask Professor Oak if he can help him. Alakazam are the best Pokémon to teach Psychic-type attacks, and Ash knows Professor Oak has one somewhere in the lab. Butterfree doesn't want to separate from the team, but in the end agrees with Ash that he needs help to figure out how to use Psychic. Ash sends him to Oak with promises to get him back as soon as he learns Psychic.

And now was the thing that Ash had been saving most of his money on his journey for, the TMs of the Celadon Department store. There are really only a few big companies designated for trainer supplies. Devon Co. of Hoenn the current sole-developer of Pokéballs, Lysandre Labs of Kalos that makes artificial training vitamins and the temporary boosting X items, and finally Silph Co. of Kanto, the creator of Technical Machines. That means Hoenn has the most diverse amount of pokéballs to be able to purchase, Kalos has the easiest access to essential vitamins, but Kanto had the easiest access to the most TMs in the world. To the point that the Celadon Department store, as the biggest shopping mall in Kanto, has access to _almost every move a Pokémon can learn_ in the form of a TM, which are essential items to any trainer wanting to help his or her Pokémon complete their move sets.

Ash decides to buy a few moves for his Pokémon. He buys X-scissor and Rock Slide for Grovyle, Ice Beam and Dark Pulse for Frogadier to help prepare him for gaining the Dark-typing as a Greninja, and Focus Punch for Charmeleon and Monferno. Charmeleon also finishes learning Dragon Breath. He hoped that Charmeleon would be able to help Grovyle start to learn how to use Dragon-energy with Dragon Breath. It's only three days later that he gets Butterfree back from Professor Oak, with him knowing how to use Psychic perfectly, now he just needs to train it to the level of him other moves.

"Thanks again Professor Oak," Ash says with Butterfree hugging his head, "he's been having trouble with Psychic for a little while now, and I had no idea how to help him with it."

"It's no problem Ash," Professor Oak responds, amused at Butterfree's actions. "I just wish more people were aware that I was a very strong trainer before I was a renowned professor. You and Gary have called for small things to help your Pokémon train, and I am glad about that, but in recent memory you two are the only ones. I also feel I must admit to a small second reason for sending you Charizard, by the way."

"What do you mean Professor? Ash asked a little confused. Charizard helping Charmeleon was a godsend, in all honesty.

"Well, Charizard and Dragonite used to train together for hours every day to keep up their strength." Oak began, "Ever since you sent Dratini over, Dragonite hasn't been able to recover much between teaching Dratini and sparring. I thought that if Charizard were to train a Pokémon as well, he would be more understanding of Dragonite needing a few days to rest between their spars so she can properly teach Dratini."

"That makes sense, with both of them being Champion level in strength," Ash says, surprised at the length of the spars. They have enough power to fight for hours at that level? "If they spar for hours they must take some serious injuries. Or be exhausted at the very least."

"Indeed. I have to get going now though, busy day today. I'll see you soon Ash, keep me updated on Charmeleon's progress, will you?"

"Sure, Professor. See you later."

With that, Ash decides to leave the Pokémon Center and train on the outskirts of town so he doesn't cause too many issues in the Center. As he is leaving however he sees a large explosion further into the city and runs to see if anyone is hurt or needs help, his Pokémon could help out a lot if a fire breaks out. As Ash gets near the site of the explosion however he notices it is the Game Corner that exploded, with a lot of Ace Trainers battling Team Rocket. Team Rocket is a gang that has been known to steal Pokémon, and use experimental drugs on them, that first started popping up on the news about 15 years ago. Ace Trainers, on the other hand, are trainers who impress the League officials such as Elite Four members, and sometimes the Champion enough during their Conference battles, and then are offered a chance to be trained to possibly replace an Elite Four member if they decide to retire. The League usually sends them on errands to help different Gym Leaders if they request help, but they are allowed to travel throughout the region so they can train. He also notices Erika using a different giant Parasect, this one has a few scars along the large mushroom on its back and being at least six feet tall, and a Tangrowth to battle a few people who are clearly in Team Rocket but wearing a different outfit than the uniform the others are. Deciding this is not a place he wants to be, he turns around and tries to get away before someone sees him.

"Hey! Someone's getting away! Golbat, stop him!"

'Well so much for that.' Ash thinks as he turns around to see a Golbat flying towards him with a Rhydon charging him a few feet behind.

"Butterfree, Frogadier I need help! Butterfree, Psychic on the Golbat, knock it out. Frogadier, use the strongest Water Pulse you can on that Rhydon, don't get it near us." His Pokémon pull off the moves flawlessly. Butterfree's eyes glow a very bright pink before Golbat's eyes glow the same and it screeches in pain before collapsing. While Frogadier forms a large ball of water between his mouth and hands and launches it at Rhydon, not only stopping the charge but also throwing it backwards. Ash is a little surprised that Frogadier has that much power to use, but he quickly focuses back on the grunts as they recall their Pokémon. Before Ash can tell his Pokémon to keep running more grunts surround him and release their Pokémon. Ash sees multiple Golbat, a few Nidorino, and some Arbok. He even sees a Pinsir and releases Monferno and Charmeleon as well. He would release Grovyle, but with him being weak to every Pokémon they released, it could cause him serious injury.

"Butterfree, keep the skies clear, don't let the Golbat get close, Monferno don't hold back right now. Frogadier, Charmeleon. Let 'em have it."

After that an all-out war took place. Butterfree fired off Psychics and Air Slashes almost continuously to keep the Golbat at bay, Frogadier and Charmeleon kept using Water Pulse and Flame Burst to push the crowd back while Monferno began using Flamethrowers and Heat Waves to beat back any that got past the others. All the while the other Pokémon were using their own attacks to try and get past the Pokémon and attack the trainer. Multiple Sludge attacks, and Rock Slides were being launched but thankfully Ash's Pokémon were able to avoid or counter the attacks sent their way. The battle lasted for what felt like 20 minutes but Ash knew his sense of time was thrown off with everything happening. He noticed Butterfree was about to collapse, while Charmeleon and Monferno were almost at their limit as well, before he hears someone yell, "Retreat!" and all of a sudden, the grunts and their Pokémon are gone.

Ash is a little confused but grateful for the reprieve, his Pokémon are almost completely spent. He decides now is probably a good time to get back to the Pokémon Center, when one of the Ace Trainers approaches him.

"Hello, were you the one who held off those grunts?" She asks him, "You're not in trouble for that, I just need to know what happened here. My name is Candice Redbraze, what's yours?"

When Ash didn't respond after a few moments, she asked him if this was his first large scale battle and Ash simply nods at her.

Candice sighs, "Well, we should move away from here before I ask you anything. If not, we'll be here for an hour before you can calm down enough to answer my questions." Candice walks Ash back to the Pokémon Center and asks him a few basic questions, 'why was he there?', 'why did he battle the Team Rocket Grunts?', 'Did any of them say something that the league should know about?' She also asks Ash for a way to contact him in case the league needs more information, and on finding out Ash doesn't have a phone, takes him to the Department Store to get one.

"You should always have a phone on you. Even if you don't use it aside from emergencies. If someone needs to contact you for something important, you need a phone."

Ash decided on getting a cheaper, solar powered one. Part of the reason he didn't start his journey with a phone was because they were too expensive, and using a regular chargeable phone while on the road isn't smart because the batteries will die within a day or two. But now that he has made a lot of money from battling the Gyms he has just enough to buy one, although that did cost almost all of the money he had left after buying the TMs he did the other day. After getting his information for the league, and making sure Ash knows the emergency call number, she left and Ash hurried back to the Center to heal his Pokémon. Ash spends a day making sure his Pokémon are ok, before going to take Route 16 to Fuchsia City, under the Cycle Road. He also calls his mother and Professor Oak to let them know he bought a cell phone, and to give them his number in case they want to call him. Professor Oak merely thanked Ash for letting him know, then warned him to be careful because of his encounter with Team Rocket. His mother, however, decided that because he now has a way to talk to her every day, that he would call her twice a day or when anything exciting happened, although Ash was able to reduce it to once a day around dinner time.

Ash started the next day by continuing training, and in the next week of training, Butterfree finally mastered Psychic completely, so Ash has him start learning Quiver Dance. Unfortunately even if Butterfree masters the move today, it will be months before he can hold the boosts of Quiver Dance in his body. Like all stat boosting moves, if a Pokémon's body is too young, or too weak, it cannot hold all of the excess energy inside of its body, leaking most of it out. In some extremely rare cases, an inexperienced Pokémon could overwork their bodies trying to force more energy into the move killing the Pokémon, making Ash a little wary of letting Butterfree use the move too often for a while. Charmeleon perfects Focus Punch, learns how to cut the power in half for Brick Break, and begins working on Thunder Punch with Charizard's help to Ash's shock. Apparently Charizard decided to push Charmeleon hard after that first day of attitude during training. Grovyle practiced all of his moves and with Monferno's help, learns how to use Iron Tail. Ash does make him practice all of his moves so he doesn't have any problems with forgetting them, Grovyle remembering how to use X-scissor, Rock Slide, and Iron Tail at the same time is definitely something that will require a lot of training to maintain. Frogadier learns how to use Surf, and Monferno finally gains perfect control over his power. Similar to Grovyle, Ash has him practice all of his known moves constantly, while also trying to learn Thunder Punch with Charmeleon.

Roughly a week after Ash begins his trip to Fuchsia City, he wakes up in the middle of the night. He lies there for a few minutes wondering what woke him up before he decides to see if there is anything around his camp. Remembering Professor Oak's warning, Ash releases Frogadier and Grovyle, the two who would help him the most in his current environment. Ash and his Pokémon quietly make their way out of their camp in the direction Frogadier can hear a few people talking. As they walk all three of them can't help but feel something wrong is going on and barely a minute later they realize what as they are surrounded by Team Rocket members once again. Ash doesn't hesitate and releases all of his Pokémon. However, there are easily twice the number of Pokémon this time making it much more difficult. Ash sees Butterfree get hit by a Sludge Bomb from a Golbat, and watches as Monferno and Charmeleon are slowly overwhelmed by the horde of Arbok and Ekans. The rest of Ash's Pokémon are almost completely overwhelmed and Ash hesitates a second before he releases Oak's Charizard, hoping that he won't see the Rocket Grunts as beneath his effort. Thankfully, after one look at the Team Rocket Grunts, Charizard launches a few Flamethrowers at the snake Pokémon to get them away from Ash's Pokémon, before charging a massive Fire-type attack. His eyes glow a deep red and his tail flame doubles in size before bellowing out a roar with a flame so bright that Ash and his Pokémon have to turn away. When Ash looks back all of the Team Rocket Pokémon are severely burned with the Team Rocket members returning their Pokémon and running away. Ash thanks Charizard, recalling his Pokémon to heal them at the camp. Charizard, however, refuses to let Ash recall him after the ambush that just happened.

After getting back to camp, Ash heals the few small cuts and bruises his Pokémon have, and checks Butterfree for any residual poison from the Sludge Bomb, and called the emergency number for the league. After merely barely 15 minutes a group of ace trainers, led by Lance Wataru, the Flying-type master of the Elite Four, arrived in his camp.

"You're Ash Ketchum, correct?" Lance started in a tone that made Ash answer quickly.

"Yes." was all he said in response.

"We need you to tell us everything that happened," Lance continued, "and why Team Rocket would put such effort into ambushing you in the middle of the night."

"Well," Ash thought on where he should start, "when Erika attacked the Game Corner last week I was in Celadon at the time. When I saw an explosion I rushed over to see if anyone needed help, most of my Pokémon would be able to help a lot if there was a building on fire or something. Anyway, when I got to the area, I noticed a lot of Ace Trainers and Team Rocket fighting, and before I could get away one of the Rockets ordered his Pokémon to attack me. I ended up fighting with my Frogadier, Monferno, Charmeleon and Butterfree so maybe they wanted the rare Pokémon on my team. In all honesty they would have overwhelmed my team if I didn't have Professor Oak's Charizard helping my Charmeleon at the moment."

That got a gasp from Lance and a few of the Ace Trainers and a curious look from the others. Looks like more people know about Professor Oak's trainer days than he thought.

"Why would Professor Oak send you his Charizard? And how did you get so many rare Pokémon?" Lance asked, being side tracked for a moment by the information.

"Well, I started with Frogadier. Professor Oak didn't have enough starters for everyone and I ended up with a Froakie. Grovyle, Monferno, and Charmeleon were all abandoned in their first stages and I saved them, but Professor Oak thought that Charmeleon would probably need something to help if our bond wasn't strong enough by the time he evolved. So he sent Charizard to help Charmeleon and I form a bond, and have effective training." Ash explained, not wanting anyone to think he stole any of his team.

Lance shook his head after a moment and got back to the matter at hand, "How many Team Rocket members do you think there were, if you had to guess?"

Ash blinked before thinking, "Twenty? Maybe twenty-five? I'm not sure exactly."

"Do you know which way they went?"

"I think they went that way." Ash said pointing south, "But they all kind of scattered after I sent out Charizard."

Lance nodded and ordered half of the trainers to head south while he split the others into different directions.

After they left Ash decided to try to sleep but, after hours of tossing and turning, figured out he wasn't going to be able to. When the Sun started raising over the horizon, Ash decided to get up and call Professor Oak. It might be better for him if his mother doesn't know that he had another encounter with Team Rocket, and this one where they were actually looking for him.

"Are you ok, Ash? I know Team Rocket can be terrifying, especially to those unused to dealing with them." Professor Oak says after Ash tells him.

"Yea, I'm good." Ash says, "Everyone got out with only a few bumps and bruises, thanks to Charizard. I'm glad that you let me keep Charizard with me until I reached Fuchsia, We wouldn't have been able to make it out of there without him."

"I'm wondering now if I should let you keep Charizard with you for the rest of your season. If you interested Rocket enough that they will track you down, they might be willing to come at you again. This time with stronger numbers."

"I don't know Professor," Ash said, thinking of Charizard's attack, "Charizard used a pretty strong fire move. I don't think it was Fire Blast or Inferno. His eyes lit up and his tail flame got huge! I've never seen anything like that attack really."

"That attack is known as Blast Burn, Ash." Oak tells him after a moment, "The strongest fire type attack that Charizard can learn."

"Blast Burn?" Ash asks, "How come I haven't heard of it before?"

Professor Oak sounds even more serious as he answers. "Because the conditions for the move are very taxing on the Pokémon and if learned too early can have serious side effects. You might know about Hydro Cannon because of Champion Red's Blastoise using the attack so casually, but it is still very dangerous. Blast Burn is honestly the Fire-type version of that move. There is actually a third variant of Blast Burn and Hydro Cannon that has the same effect on the Pokémon using it, so it is not taught very often and only to those that have shown great skill. Do not try and have your Pokémon learn the move. Especially before they have evolved into their final evolutions."

"I promise, Professor. Don't worry. An attack that does that kind of damage is clearly one that shouldn't be used lightly. If anything, I would just teach them Hyper Beam or Giga Impact when they're ready, those ones were at least taught in school."

"Good. Now, I have to get going. You should call your mother about this, Ash. Something of this magnitude is something she should be warned about."

Ash sighs and agrees, calling his mother after Professor Oak hangs up. Surprisingly, his mother is less hysterical about the attack than he thought she would be. She was still obviously shaken by how much stuttering he could hear through the phone, but overall she seemed much more concerned with if he and is Pokémon were ok, rather than the fact he has an insanely powerful criminal organization after him. He decided not to bring that fact up so he doesn't scare his mother any more. After talking with his mom for about an hour Ash decides for training that day, he will have Monferno and Charmeleon continue sparring, training Monferno to use Blaze and try to get Charmeleon to activate his. His other Pokémon are still practicing their moves so that they can be sure to not forget any, with Butterfree trying to get used to holding stat boosts with Quiver Dance. It is during one of the last days in Ash's short trip where Grovyle evolves. Nothing really special like most of the teams evolutions, he just finished daily sets of moves and had a light spar with Frogadier before evolving into a Sceptile. Ash smiles widely at having another of his Pokémon reach their final evolutionary stage.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When Ash arrives in Fuchsia, he wastes no time before getting to the Pokémon Center, with Sceptiles evolution and how far he has been pushing Monferno to gain control over his Blaze, he has been a little worried the past few days of their medical health. Thankfully, even though Monferno has been exhausting himself, except for when he uses Blaze he hasn't been using a whole lot of his internal energy for his spars, so he is not at risk of prematurely evolving. After resting for the day, Ash figures it might be a good idea to see if the Safari has any Pokémon that he would like on the team. The trip to the Safari is very short and when Ash enters he is warned that his Pokémon may only come out in a life and death situation.

"If we let people battle the Pokémon in the Safari, we wouldn't be able to get any of them in there, let alone let them feel the place is safe enough as a sanctuary for them." The guard told him.

Not only will he be banned from entering another Safari in any league sanctioned region if he breaks the rules, he will also be under an intense investigation for any other crimes he may have committed and his trainer license suspended. With the 5 Safari Balls granted to him, Ash takes the warning to heart and explores the large Safari. He sees a few herds of Tauros and Kangaskhan, and a few wild Eevee, however any time he enters their line of sight they run off. It is almost sunset by the time he comes across a Heracross eating the sap from a tree. Thinking he won't get another opportunity if it sees him, he throws a Safari Ball and the ball shakes a few times before Heracross escapes and glares at him for a minute before returning to the tree. Realizing Heracross won't run, Ash collects the Safari pokéball and walks over to Heracross.

"Heracross, would you like to come with me and my team? I'm already training multiple Pokémon to be very strong, I could help you get stronger too."

Heracross jumps off of the tree, directly in front of Ash, and begins to circle Ash. Before Ash can really react to that, he feels the ground begin to shake and looks around for what could be doing that. Heracross reacts by jumping high into the tree, but Ash unfamiliar with the area just tries to regain his balance. By the time he realizes Heracross is gone, Ash can see a Tauros stampede barely 40 feet away from him.

"Monferno, Sceptile! Rock Slide, give us cover!" Ash says as he releases his Pokémon. Sceptile and Monferno perform the move perfectly and the Tauros avoid them completely, going around the small mound of boulders his Pokémon created. Heracross jumps off of the tree and inspects Monferno and Sceptile for a while, examining the Pokémon Ash has already trained to decide if Ash can help make him stronger. After a minute, Heracross makes his decision and nods at Ash. Ash captures Heracross without issue and heads back to the entrance since the sun has almost set.

The following day has a clear sky so Ash decides it is a good training day. Ash scans Heracross with the pokedex and sees that he knows Megahorn, X-Scissor, Close Combat, Brick Break, Earthquake and Shadow Claw. Ash decides to have Frogadier teach him Rock Tomb, after checking to see how much control Heracross has with Earthquake. A Pokémon with good control of the move can control how far the Earthquake extends, but the slightest slip and the move could be felt for miles if used by a moderately strong Pokémon. Meanwhile Butterfree and Sceptile spar for practice against a fast Pokémon and a flying Pokémon, respectively. Monferno and Charmeleon are also sparring and Ash notices that today Charmeleon's Flame Bursts are stronger than usual. Charizard notices too and they both begin to wonder if Charmeleon has Blaze, or the other ability the Charmander line can have; Solar Power, as Charmeleon has been pushed just as far as Monferno, but has never activated Blaze. Charizard decides to test the theory without waiting for Ash to think about it, and uses Sunny Day to put more Fire-type energy into the sky. Normally, Fire-type moves will gain a small boost in power, while Water-type moves lose a bit of power. However, if a Pokémon with Solar Power used a Fire-type move while Sunny Day was being used, it could turn a Flame Burst into an attack that can match a Fire Blast. Sure enough, the next time Charmeleon uses Flame Burst, the attack has nearly double the power Charmeleon normally puts into it. One of the only problems of the pokedex is that it can't scan a Pokémon's ability unless the ability is activated, and as Ash scans Charmeleon while the two are battling, it registers Charmeleon as having Solar Power activated. Ash decides that despite the small amount of overheating Solar Power can do when activated, to have Charizard teach Charmeleon, Butterfree and Monferno Sunny Day, while he teaches Solarbeam to Sceptile. Monferno could use the power to increase his Blaze power, once he gets a better grasp on it, Charmeleon would have the Solar Power boost, and Butterfree could use it with Solarbeam once Sceptile learns it. Heracross learns Rock tomb and begins learning Rock Slide while Frogadier trains and evolves into Greninja. Ash thinks that with Monferno, Butterfree, Heracross and Charmeleon, he shouldn't have any issue with the Fuchsia Gym. Since it is the Poison Gym of Kanto, it will probably have a Golbat, which Butterfree will fight, one of the Grass/Poison types, or Bug/Poison types for Charmeleon or Monferno to fight, and Heracross would have a good matchup with Earthquake.

The next day, Ash walks into the Fuchsia City Gym, wondering what kind of field a Poison gym will have. The Water-type gym was a pool, the Rock-type gym was a mountain like area, and the Grass-type gym was a forest clearing. After waiting for a few other trainers to finish their Gym Challenges, Ash signs his name and finds himself in a swamp like area. With parts of it completely underwater and others on wet land, Ash thinks it will be the perfect field for Greninja, and Charmeleon may be able to battle if Sunny Day can dry the ground enough. As he is thinking of a battle plan, a woman about the same age as Erika walks to the box for Gym Leaders, wearing a tight fitting ninja outfit with her hair pulled back into a short ponytail.

"Hi! I'm Janine. You're Ash Ketchum, right? I have to admit Erika's impression of you seems to be spot on, 'Looks inexperienced, newer travelling clothes that are starting to show use, but he really knows how to train his Pokémon'." She told him. She smirked and says, "This should be fun."

"You know Erika? I figured most of the Leaders didn't interact much other than when the League called you all for a meeting or something." Ash asked her a little confused.

"Oh yea, for the most part that's true, but Erika and I have known each other since we were babies. Because of all of the Poison/Grass types in Kanto, our gyms usually train and trade with each other. Our fathers were both the Leaders of our Gyms actually. My Dad took over one of the Elite Four spots while her dad decided to just retire and let her take over the gym. Hel helps out in training between our gyms and even my dad, sometimes."

As she finishes that, a referee walks to his box and begins officiating the match.

"The Gym Challenge for the Soul Badge of Fuchsia City is about to begin between the Challenger Ash Ketchum and the Gym Leader Janine Sera. This will be a three-on-three battle with the Leader having no substitutions. The battle will end when one side has no more Pokémon able to battle. Are both trainers ready? Begin!"

Ash sends out Heracross, while Janine sends out a Tentacruel, seemingly completely at home in the swamp.

"Heracross, Earthquake."

"Tentacruel, Scald."

Heracross jumps a few feet in the air surrounding himself in light brown energy, however before he can execute his attack, Tentacruel shoots a boiling stream of water at Heracross. Heracross falls over and the energy for his attack dissipates and Ash notices a large burn mark on Heracross' left wing and arm, and noticing the opportunity, Ash brings out his pokedex to scan Heracross for his ability. Luckily, the scan tells Ash that Guts is active on Heracross.

"Heracross, use Rock Tomb to get close, then Shadow Claw." Ash says as he calms down. If Heracross had Swarm as his ability, it would have been very difficult for Heracross to win this match. But thanks to Guts, he has an even easier time with this match because Heracross will be able turn any pain from the burn into power for his attacks.

"Tentacruel, Sludge Bomb. Stop the rocks." Tentacruel is able to stop the rocks from falling on him, however he doesn't notice when Heracross is almost on him with his right arm covered in dark, purple energy. And the claw made of that energy lengthening his arm. Unfortunately for Heracross, Tentacruel had enough training to shoot a weak Sludge Bomb, and both Pokémon hit each other. Heracross barely felt the hit, however Tentacruel was thrown backward from the force of the attack and knocked out.

"Tentacruel is unable to battle, Heracross wins."

Janine sends out Golbat without saying a word. Ash notices Heracross is looking tired, so recalls him for later in the battle. Ash sends out Butterfree to make this an air battle.

"Golbat, Aerial Ace." Janine commanded

"Butterfree, Psychic. And then Quiver Dance." Ash told Butterfree, hoping the few boosts Butterfree could hold would be enough to defeat Golbat.

"Air Slash and Heat Wave, Golbat. Don't let it focus."

"Butterfree, try and counter its Air Slashes with your own." Butterfree was able to stop the Air Slashes however a Heat Wave was able to knock Butterfree off balance and Golbat quickly attacked with an Aerial Ace, knocking Butterfree out.

"Butterfree is unable to battle, Golbat wins."

As Ash recalled Butterfree, he noticed that Golbat was very weak after getting hit by Psychic.

"Greninja, let's go." Ash decided on the best Pokémon for the environment.

"Begin!"

"Smack Down." Ash said immediately. Greninja poured Rock energy into his hand and formed a medium sized rock. He threw it and less than a second later, it hit Golbat directly in the face and knocked it out.

"Golbat is unable to battle, Greninja wins."

"Well, that is not something I expected you to have. Nidorina, you're it."

"Begin!"

"Nidorina, Thunderbolt."

"Greninja, Surf!"

Greninja's arms glowed a deep blue color, before he pushed outwards and a gigantic tidal wave poured out of him. Nidorina's thin stream of electric didn't stand a chance to hold up against the massive Surf and Nidorina was bowled over by it.

"Aerial Ace, then Dark Pulse." Greninja glowed with the power of Aerial Ace and used his environment to the perfect affect, disappearing from everyone's view before punching Nidorina's with Aerial Ace, and then forming a sphere filled with black energy in his other hand. With a loud yell Greninja released the sphere and, just like with Water Pulse when it comes into contact, all of the Dark-type energy exploded in front of Nidorina and knocked her across the field.

"Nidorina, Sludge Wave!"

"Greninja, counter it with Surf."

Both wide ranged attacks hit each other and exploded with an obscene amount of force. Greninja used the opportunity to rush behind Nidorina and use Dark Pulse point blank to knock her out.

"Nidorina is unable to battle, Greninja wins. Leader Janine has no more available Pokémon, Ash Ketchum is the winner."

"Wow, that Greninja of yours is pretty strong." Janine tells him as she walks over. "You've trained him pretty well."

Ash smiles, "Thanks! He was a bit of a headstrong Froakie that wouldn't let the regular starting trainers use him for a battle if they weren't very experienced, so I can't say I'm the only one to train him. But he was my starter Pokémon, and I've done everything I can to make him as strong as possible."

"Here is the Soul Badge," Janine said, "and the Poison Jab TM. I don't have any doubt you'll make good use of it. I would love to stay and talk, but I've got a lot of challengers right now." Janine said before going back to the leader's box while Ash was rushed out of the gym.

Deciding to head to the Pokémon Center and get his team healed, Ash wondered how long he should spend training his Pokémon to the next level now that he won't be fighting any of the leader's rookie teams anymore. If he spends too long training, he could very easily end up running out of time to get all of the badges he needs, but if he doesn't spend the necessary time training, he will most likely not manage to win against the Pokémon he has to fight.

After healing his Pokémon, Ash thinks of where he should go next, he can go to Cinnabar Island from here and challenge the Fire Gym, he can take routes 13 to 15 to get to Vermillion, but that may take him a solid month of traveling, something he isn't sure he can handle at the moment. He can also take a ferry to Vermillion, which would only take a few days. After thinking on it for most of the day, Ash decides to go to Vermillion by the ferry that is leaving the next morning. His Pokémon can take a few days to rest, and it will be harder for Team Rocket to get to him on a ferry than between cities again. Thankfully, the trip to Vermillion was pretty calm, and the few days of rest seemed very good for his Pokémon. The first day in Vermillion, Butterfree finished Solarbeam, Monferno was able to master Poison Jab within a few attempts and he taught it to Greninja and Sceptile, and Charmeleon was able to perfect his Sunny Day to make it last for its maximum duration of about 5 minutes. A few days into the training Monferno was able to evolve into Infernape, and surprisingly, had absolute control over his fire. Seeing how almost his entire team was fully evolved now, and that Charmeleon was able to pull out more power than most of his team at times, Ash decides that Charizard should go back to Professor Oak. He helped out a lot, but his Pokémon should be strong enough to handle a Team Rocket now, and he and Charmeleon have just as great of a bond as his other Pokémon. Sceptile didn't have any problems after evolving, and he gained almost as much Dragon-type energy when he evolved as Charmeleon would. When he does send Charizard back, Professor Oak tells Ash something many trainers don't learn until a few years into their journey.

"Just like humans, Pokémon aren't always at their maximum strength. Even a Champion's Pokémon. The secret is the same as a humans, Pokémon have to exercise. They can do a much more rigorous workout undoubtedly, but increasing their speed, power, and reflexes are honestly the only way to truly increase your Pokémon's strength. Battling experience can only go so far. Using braces and other training tools allows them to progress at a much better rate and eventually, to a much higher plateau. That's why Charizard and Dragonite spar as much as they do, to a Dragon, letting your power decline is the worst thing that can happen. An injury or old age is one thing, even if old age for a dragon is almost 400 years, but losing your power from letting it decline?" Professor Oak just shakes his head and laughs. Dratini takes this opportunity to poke her head around Professor Oak's shoulder and on seeing Ash, got very excited.

"Hi Dratini, how are you feeling? Are you having fun with Dragonite?" Ash asked her. When she blushed and looked down Professor Oak spoke up.

"They've been getting along great Ash, but Dratini here is, for lack of a better word, grounded for another few days. Dragonite usually flies her a few miles away so they can have privacy while Dragonite teaches her, but apparently Dratini acted out during the flight one day and Dragonite is punishing her."

Ash had to hold back a laugh at that, it was nice that the two were getting along like they are. "Well, maybe that will teach her to be more respectful of the rules Dragonite puts down. With how easy going she is, I doubt they were for anything other than safety." Dratini looked at Ash like he deeply betrayed her before turning her head away with her nose high in the air. "It's only for a few more days, right Dratini? It won't be that bad." Dratini looked at Ash before saying something and slithering away. "Well that was cute. Anyway, thanks for the advice Professor. I'll be sure to pick up a few braces from the Vermillion Pokémart before I leave and look up the right ways to use them. Bye, Professor."

"Take care, Ash," Professor Oak said before ending the call.

With the transfer complete, Ash walks to the Electric Gym wondering how it will play out. Infernape, Heracross and Sceptile are all very strong choices for this gym. Infernape knows Dig to be able to pull off the needed Ground-type energy to truly hurt an Electric type, Heracross knows Earthquake for a similar reaction, and Sceptile's typing lets him resist electric attacks, which will be very useful. Ash is still a little worried about who his last choice will be, however. Butterfree and Greninja are both weak to Electric types and Charmeleon is still a little too weak to battle against a Gym Leader's real team for very long.

Ash gets to the Gym he notices the line is really long and prepares to spend the whole day waiting to challenge the Leader. However to his shock, the line of at least 50 people is almost completely empty in just over an hour.

After he signs up, he walks to the field and notices the Gym Leader in his box waiting for the next challenger. And Ash sees right away the man is huge, easily 6 and a half feet tall and very muscular, wearing military camouflage pants and a green tank top.

"So you finally got 4 badges, and decide to challenge me, kid?" He tells Ash, "Well, My name is Surge. So, you think you're ready to start fighting our strongest?"

Ash steels his nerves and tells him, "I know my Pokémon can handle 2 of yours. I'm still leagues away from fighting a six-on-six battle with any of you, but two-on-four? Yea we can handle you."

"Hahaha! I like your spunk, Hey, Cameron! Get up here and start this already!"

"Yea, yea Surge, you don't have to yell for me." The referee, Cameron apparently, says as he walks up to his box. "The official Gym challenge of Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, vs Gym Leader Brandon Surge for the Thunder Badge, will be a 2-on-4 match, with the Challenger having access to four Pokémon. The challenger may substitute his Pokémon, however the Leader may not. This battle will be decided when one side has run out of usable Pokémon. Since Surge rushed me out here so quickly, begin!"

Surge decided to use a Raichu, while Ash chooses Infernape.

"Raichu. Thunderbolt."

"Infernape, Dig."

Raichu momentarily was surrounded in a yellow aura before a very large thunderbolt shot off of Raichu and raced toward Infernape. Thankfully, he was able to avoid it by burrowing into the ground.

"You think you're the first person to try this strategy? Raichu, get ready." Surge tells Ash before Infernape bursts through the ground behind Raichu and punches it, with his arm covered in light brown energy. Before Raichu could regain his bearings, Infernape's other arm glowed a deep purple color before punching the Raichu again, sending it flying using Poison Jab. Before the Raichu can recover, Infernape's fist glows the maroon of Fighting-type energy and he Mach Punches at Raichu, the momentum of his fist shooting him towards the Raichu.

"Woah, that packed some power! Raichu, incoming from below." The Raichu, without showing any sign he actually recovered from the two attacks, wraps its tail around Infernape's arm and after getting hit with Mach Punch, twisted and Slammed Infernape into the ground before sparking its cheeks and raising its arms. A medium sized cloud formed very quickly almost on the ceiling of the gym to Ash's confusion, and then a massive bolt of electricity slammed into Infernape, knocking him out.

"Infernape is unable to battle, Raichu wins."

As Ash recalled Infernape, Surge laughed, annoying Ash for a moment before Surge said anything.

"Man that is one strong Infernape. Raichu is almost spent completely and that was only after three moves!" Surge laughed again.

Ash looked at the Raichu and noticed that it did look pretty worn down already, surprising Ash for a moment. 'I guess Infernape was able to do more damage than I thought.' he thought.

"Sceptile, you're up." He says. "Leaf Blade."

"Counter it with Iron Tail." Surge yells.

Unsurprisingly, with Raichu so exhausted Sceptile is able to avoid the super long tail and scores a direct hit on Raichu, knocking it out easily.

"Raichu is unable to battle, Sceptile wins."

"Well, seeing as you matched one of my medium strength Pokémon so easily. Let's see how you handle my strongest! Electivire, we got a challenge!" Surge yells

He released a fairly large Electivire, nothing gigantic like the Parasect he saw Erika use at the Game Corner, but it is still clearly strong and well trained.

"Electivire, get close and Fire Punch." Surge ordered.

"Keep away from it! Energy Ball."

"After it, Electivire! Drain Punch if you get close."

After that command, it was a game of tag almost, Sceptile keeps trying to avoid the hits and sending Energy Balls at Electivire. Electivire dodged all the attacks or batted them away with a Fire Punch, before finally grazing Sceptile's side with the attack. Thrown off balance, Sceptile fell to the ground, and Electivire jumped on his chance. With a glowing maroon fist he punched Sceptile very hard and seemed to stand a little straighter, after glowing with the energy from his fist for a moment. Sceptile could barely manage to move after that, but used Sunny Day and began charging energy for a Solarbeam in the bulbs on his back.

"Electivire, finish it with Fire Punch! We can't let it recover." Surge yelled, probably thinking the glowing bulbs were Synthesis.

'I should remember to get Sceptile to learn that at some point. It could be very useful.' Ash thought, making a mental note of that as Electivire closed the distance between it and Sceptile.

Electivire threw the punch, which had much hotter flames this time, and Sceptile launched Solarbeam at the same moment, the two attacks finding their target. Electivire was thrown back, but Sceptile was knocked out by Fire Punch. Electivire was able to get back up and looked ready for a few more battles.

"Sceptile is unable to battle, Electivire is the winner."

Ash recalled Sceptile and thought of who to use here, with Sunny Day still out, Charmeleon would be able to match Electivire's power, but could he match the speed?

'Damn,' Ash thought, 'Sceptile needed Sunny Day to charge a strong enough Solarbeam, but it really limited my options this time. That Electivire is too fast for any of my other pokémon. Charmeleon will have to try and overpower it while the Sunny Day is still around.'

"Let's go Charmeleon!" Ash yelled as Charmeleon landed on the field and roared.

"Are you sure that you want to use that pipsqueak? Electivire will eat it for lunch." Surge said before the Referee yelled, "Begin!"

"Electivire, Thunderbolt, knock it out of here."

"Flamethrower, Charmeleon!" Ash countered

Surge was just about to laugh again, before he saw the size of the Flamethrower that was about to engulf Electivire after completely destroying Thunderbolt. Instead he growled, "Zap Cannon!"

Electivire didn't hesitate for a second before pointing the tips of its tails at the bulb like horns on its head and forming a large sphere of crackling Electric-type energy and launching the attack at the Flamethrower. The resulting explosion covered the entire field in a cloud of black smoke. The next moment, the cloud parted as Charmeleon launched a Focus Punch at the Electivire that ¬¬appeared in front of him the moment before. The attack made Electivire stop for a moment as the wind was knocked out of it, which was all Charmeleon needed as he launched a Flame Burst at its face before jumping up and slamming the Electivire hard in the face with his tail and focusing all of his power into one more Flamethrower before it could react. Electivire stayed down for a moment, before rising up slowly and glaring at Charmeleon before wincing and falling over and not getting back up. Charmeleon roared one more time before he too fell over, the overheating from Solar Power taking its toll on his body.

"Electivire and Charmeleon are both unable to battle. Challenger Ash Ketchum still has one Pokémon available, while Leader Surge does not. Therefore, Ash is the winner!"

"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle…" Surge was smiling, although Ash couldn't figure out why he would be. "It's been a long time since I've fought a rookie trainer that didn't need the full handicap, the last one was a friend of the Champion, I think, 6 years ago at least. Oh, right. Here's Thunderbolt, by the way. I forget to give that out usually."

"Thanks, Lt. Surge." Ash says, "That Electivire was seriously strong. I was worried when it just shrugged off Sceptile's Solarbeam"

"I wasn't lying when I said he was my strongest." Surge said with quite a bit of pride in his voice. "His strength puts him above my other Pokémon, by a big chunk too. He just needs to get faster and stop relying on Motor Drive for everything." Surge tells him. "Let me walk you to the Pokémon Center, kid. I want to get a feel for how you're training your Pokémon."

As they walk out of the gym, Ash has to wonder why Surge would just ignore that he has a lot of challengers still at the gym.

"Ah, I'll get to them in a bit. I may not be part of the Big Three, but I still usually only need a few minutes each to handle each challenger now that most of the rookies of the year are able to fight some of the stronger ones on my registered team." The Big Three are the three strongest Gym Leaders of a region. For Kanto those three are Giovanni, Sabrina, and Blaine. Johto has a family member of Lance's as one of their Big Three if Ash remembers correct. "Electric-types are mostly glass cannons for the most part, able to use the most powerful element, but only able to take a few hits until they're seriously trained."

"You're kind of lucky, though, in all honesty." Ash told Surge. "Infernape has a seriously strong Blaze, he had another trainer as a Chimchar and they had him focus almost entirely on power."

Surge scoffed. "So some dumbass forced him to get stronger quickly, why would his Blaze be much different than a normal Infernape's? Normally a boosting ability would be weakened by that, not made stronger."

Ash shrugged, "Professor Oak thinks that even though he was forced to learn strong moves, they were incrementally increased in power. So instead of forcing too much power into him too quickly, he was actually just forced to train his overall power at a faster than normal rate. He also thinks that if I ran into him any later, it might have been too detrimental to him by the time he evolved. The time before he evolved was focused entirely on bettering his defense and learning how to use all of his power effectively. His theory is that all of that is the reason why when Infernape's Blaze activates, instead of the normal small aura that the Pokémon will give off, his flame explodes around him and he looks like he using an overpowered Flare Blitz and his power nearly doubles."

Surge whistles, "If that's true, Raichu is lucky. That Infernape was already a beast, with a boost like that I'm not sure if he would have won."

"Most of my Pokémon are around that strength really, Sceptile and Butterfree are a little less powerful, focusing more on evading than powering through a hit, but Greninja and Charmeleon can pour out power more than enough power to match. Heracross is still new, but he's catching up."

Surge looked at Ash for a second, slightly confused. "You have a Butterfree able to keep up with the rest of your team?"

"Yea." Ash tells him, "He might not have as much power as Infernape, Charmeleon or Greninja, but he can hold a few Quiver Dance boosts now and that evens out the power. And he is naturally around their speed and can avoid a lot of their attacks."

"That's impressive." Surge said, actually sounding impressed now, "Your other Pokémon I expect to be strong, their species limit is pretty high, but a Butterfree able to keep up with them? That's not common." Surge laughed at something for a minute before telling Ash, "Make sure to keep him strong enough to keep up, I wanna see some other pipsqueak get demolished by that Butterfree and freak out. That'll make this year's conference eventful."

His species limit. Ash hadn't even thought of that, typically a Pokémon has a limit on how high their speed, attacks and defenses can be. But Butterfree has been keeping up the whole time and he is definitely passed what could be expected from a typical Butterfree. Then again, most people avoid training a Butterfree. They only live for around 30 years with the last 5 or so typically being too difficult for them to battle very much and it takes a lot of training for them to get to the level of other Pokémon.

Ash grinned at the thought of being the first Champion with a Butterfree. "Oh I plan on it, I'll show everyone that Butterfree is able to fight just as much as my other Pokémon. He may need to anyway, with all of the rare Pokémon I have with me Team Rocket might just try and attack me again."

"So you did something to get their attention?" Surge asked, "Don't let them ruin your trip, Ash." Surge said. "You have strong enough Pokémon to handle most Rocket punks. And they won't bother sending Executives after you, too much of a waste of resources, for not enough gain, I would imagine. Don't let them dictate what you can do. You'll end up regretting looking over your shoulder for your whole journey instead of actually enjoying yourself." They arrived at the Pokémon Center after that and after healing their Pokémon, Ash bought a few braces to help Charmeleon and Butterfree increase their special attacking strength. The Power Lens apparently absorbs part of the energy a Pokémon produces for a special attack like Flamethrower or Air Slash, forcing the Pokémon to put more power into their attacks and helping train that stat to a much higher level. While Heracross and Infernape were given some to increase their physical attacking strength, the Power Bracer, and Sceptile and Greninja were given ones to increase their speed, the Power Anklet. After attaching the braces, Ash decided to head toward Lavender Town, training his Pokémon to prepare for the Psychic Gym Leader in Saffron, and hopefully catching a Ghost-type while in Lavender.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

While Ash was attaching the brace for Charmeleon, he noticed that Charmeleon is starting to grow small lumps between his shoulder blades. It isn't unusual for Dragon-like Pokémon to show signs they will evolve for a week or so beforehand, just from how long it can take for a Dragon's body to prepare for evolution. So those lumps should be a sign of wings starting to form and that Charmeleon will evolve soon. During the next few days of training, Butterfree learns Tailwind, a Flying-type move that pulls a large gust of wind through the area for a few minutes, increasing the speed that Butterfree can fly and powering up some attacks like Gust, or Hurricane if that was a move Butterfree could learn and also allowing moves like Stun Spore to travel through the air faster. Sceptile learns Dual Chop and Dragon Pulse, fairly simple moves to learn because of the latent Dragon-type energy Sceptile possess and a few instructions from Charmeleon on how to properly mold it. Infernape increases his speed and learns Flare Blitz and Close Combat, two of the strongest moves of his respective types. Flare Blitz works by coating the user in flames and attacking the opponent with all of that power, although it does lead to some damage to the user. Close Combat is similar, however it allows a Pokémon to ignore any kind of mental block and use all of its strength for attacking, leaving their mind and muscles weak for a short period after the attack. Greninja manages to learn Gunk Shot, a Poison-type attack that is remarkably similar to Smack Down but drenches the opponent in a large ball of poison instead of hitting them with a large rock, while Heracross learns Rest and Sleep Talk. Rest is an interesting move as it uses Psychic-type energy in the air to hypnotize the user and allows them to recover as it puts the user to sleep at the same time, and once a Pokémon learns Sleep Talk, they can leave a part of themselves open for their trainer to command in battle. Although, usually they don't have any control on exactly what power is used. Rest may be the only Psychic-type move Heracross can learn, but it lets Heracross have a slightly better resistance to Psychic-type attacks, and being asleep somehow works as a status condition for Guts to activate boosting the attack strength even more, so it should be a good move for Heracross to know. But he has to work even harder to learn that one and not forget his other non-same type moves like Shadow Claw and Earthquake.

The other thing that Ash noticed during those few days were that during the day that is suggested for rest during the early stages of Power Item training, Sceptile would spend the first ten minutes or so without the Anklet being so fast he was almost a blur as he raced around before going back to the normal speed he could expect. Ash was so confused on what that was about that he had to call Professor Oak to figure out what it was.

"This would be the ability known as Unburden, I would guess." Professor Oak explained, "Typically a Pokémon with Unburden feels much more relieved from letting go of a heavy weight than others do, and from this they temporarily will be able to put more power in their movements, similar to how Close Combat allows a Pokémon to go over their limits, but not as great of a boost, and with no recoil."

Ash furrowed his brow, thinking, "So I have two exceedingly rare Pokémon that have the more rare abilities of their kind, and one that has the ability altered to be almost unique for them? That's unusual." The regional professor of Kanto couldn't help but agree.

"Be careful Ash. I must be going now though." And the call ended.

"Well, at least now I know what it is." Ash commented before continuing his route to Lavender Town. "But how was I able to come across them so quickly? Even experienced trainers usually don't have so many special Pokémon."

About a week into his trip to Lavender Town, Ash sees a giant dark blue boulder a few hundred feet down the path, and as he gets close to it, realizes it is actually a Snorlax! Snorlax are some of the strongest Normal-type Pokémon in the world. In fact, Snorlax is actually the best normal-type to take a hit and then hit back harder. Thinking that catching a Snorlax would be something to help his team become a lot stronger, between training with Snorlax and actually using Snorlax in battles. Thankfully the fact that in the past ten years Pokémon food has been worked on extensively to both make it taste like the best food a Pokémon could get, and give them all of the nutrition they need, makes it so Snorlax wouldn't eat him or Professor Oak out of their homes or professions.

Now though, he has to figure out how to wake it up without making it mad. An angry Snorlax can level whole mountain ranges, and not even his whole team could take it down if it got to that point. It takes a few minutes, but Ash is finally able to wake Snorlax up and challenge it to a battle. The Snorlax agrees and grumbles a bit as it stands up and Ash sends out Infernape, hoping to use Infernape's speed to keep it safe from Snorlax's attacks. After taking off his Power Bracer, Infernape jumps to Snorlax, who is still mumbling, to use Close Combat. Much to Ash's and Infernape's shock however, Snorlax seemed to just absorb the attack and counters with an extremely slow Mega Punch. Thankfully, Infernape recovered and was able to avoid the attack, but gets hit when Snorlax changes direction and hits Infernape with a backhand and sends him flying into the trees. Needless to say, the unexpected move shocked both trainer and Pokémon.

"Infernape, use your speed! Get him to attack and get away, we need to tire him out." Ash says

What followed was Infernape using Mach Punch to get close and jump away before Snorlax could attack for about 5 minutes before Snorlax started putting less power in its attacks, even though it looked no more tired than before. Suddenly Snorlax starts yelling at Infernape who, after Snorlax stops yelling, promptly falls on the ground laughing. When Snorlax starts walking to Infernape however, he leaps back up and before Snorlax can react uses Mach punch right to Snorlax's face knocking it over. Ash notices Snorlax falling and throws a pokéball. Infernape, who is starting to feel the exhaustion of the battle, and Ash, who is watching in anticipation, watch the pokéball shake. When it signals that Snorlax is caught, Ash woops in joy. Now he has a tank that can power through hits that his team hasn't had yet. Now his Pokémon will know how to fight an opponent that can take their hit and keep moving. And after some training, he should be able to help Snorlax be able to fight opponents like Infernape that can get in, throw an attack or two, and get out.

After scanning Snorlax and seeing his moves, he learns that Snorlax knows Mega Punch, Crunch, Lick, Rest, Sleep Talk, Giga Impact and Curse. Rest, Sleep Talk and Mega Punch weren't a surprise. Rest and Sleep Talk were moves that almost all Snorlax know naturally, and Ash saw him use Mega Punch during the battle. Curse was a surprise though. From what Ash knew only Ghosts could learn that move, and it requires the Ghost to use half of their life energy to deal a lot of damage over time to their opponent. Agatha, one of the Elite Four who was known for having a Gengar that can shred challenger's teams on its own, actually spent a day going over the move for his entire class explaining the move. Agatha made it very clear that any trainer who uses that move as anything other than a last resort in a life-or-death situation would have to deal with her personally, should she ever find out. Ghosts, despite being nearly immortal and capable of draining life energy, still only had a limited amount of life energy they could manipulate during their nearly half a century length lives.

But that doesn't change the question of how Snorlax knows the move. After using his Pokédex to search the move, he found something extremely odd. Curse is listed as both a Ghost-type move and a Normal-type move. Apparently, Curse works how Agatha described, but only for Ghost types. For any other type that can learn the move, and being Normal-type almost every Pokémon can, it makes their physical attacks stronger and lets them take a few more physical hits than before, but it makes them move much slower.

"That sounds like a very powerful boosting move." Ash said to himself, "Maybe Butterfree will be able to work with Snorlax to be able to use their Quiver Dance and Curse better." Ash releases his team so he can heal Snorlax and have him meet the rest of Ash's team. Thankfully everyone gets along after Infernape tells everyone about their battle.

The next month is more training and travelling, with Charmeleon evolving fairly soon after the battle with Snorlax. Ash decided that the best training for Charizard would be for him to work with Butterfree to get more used to battles in the air, and to work on increasing his natural special attacking strength so Solar Power has an even greater affect. The two of them training would be beneficial for Butterfree too. Butterfree would be able to increase his strength as well. Ash also takes a moment to check his Butterfree's size compared to others of his species. Typically, Butterfree are a little under 4 feet tall, but his is just under 5 surprisingly enough. Everyone else is about the usual size for their species so Ash has to wonder how large the others will grow to if they keep training.

There are a few unnamed villages throughout route 12 but Ash avoids them. He is stocked up on supplies for now, and going to any of them would add at least another day for him to reach Lavender. But Ash does fight a lot of trainers, both rookie and not, who are able to give everyone a good workout throughout the day. Because of those battles, Ash is also able to replenish his almost empty bank account. By the end of his month of travelling Ash is ecstatic to finally see Lavender town in the distance and by rushing through the day is able to make it to the Pokémon Center just as the sun goes down. Exhausted, Ash rents a room for the night and almost immediately falls asleep as he gets into the bed.

The next morning, he decided to send two of his Pokémon to Professor Oak so if he catches a Ghost-type it won't instantly be sent to Professor Oak since he is currently carrying the limit of six Pokémon. After talking with his Pokémon for a while, he decides to send Butterfree and Sceptile to Professor Oak to train together while the rest stay with him. Charizard for if he needs a fast escape, and Heracross, Infernape, Greninja and Snorlax for if any hostile ghost gets to too close. Sending them over to Professor Oak's lab was very simple and within 10 minutes Ash found himself standing in front of the Pokémon Tower with Greninja standing at his side.

"Ready, bud?" Ash asked and got a nod in response. The first floor of the Tower was fairly simple, with Greninja able to make most of the weaker Ghost-types avoid him because of his Dark-typing. A few Haunters wanted to have a quick battle, but none of them wanted to come with Ash, and there was no way Ash was going to force a Ghost-type to follow him. On the second floor there were a few stronger ghosts but still none that wanted to come with him, but a few that definitely had fun battling Greninja. He saw a few Misdreavus and Shuppet here and there, but a lot of Ghastly and Haunter. Near the entrance of the third floor, however, Ash sees a Honedge. But instead of approaching him like the Pokédex said it would, it tries to run away from Ash, and on looking at it closer, Ash can see the sword appears chipped and has deep scratches all across the blade. Wondering why a ghost would avoid a human so badly when ghosts like to spend more time around humans because of the extra energy they can provide, Ash walks over to it cautiously.

"Hello Honedge. Are you ok? You don't look very good." Ash asks slowly, and that's all he can get out before Honedge collapses. Ash doesn't hesitate to catch the Pokémon and rushes to the Pokémon Center.

A few hours later Nurse Joy calls him to the front desk and explains the situation with Honedge.

"It seems your Honedge hasn't used any life force to heal itself lately." She told him, "Essentially, she's been starving herself instead of taking a small amount of it from humans like other young Ghost-types. But don't worry! The restoration machines that Pokémon Centers use can help ghosts that need life force to survive. It was a bit of a side effect really, but the machines purpose was originally meant generate enough life force to heal Pokémon from almost any injury. It just had a side effect of being able to feed younger ghosts."

"So she'll be ok once she recovers?" Ash asks

"Yes, you don't have to worry about her health. Ghost-types tend to be extremely resilient and able to recover from almost anything." Nurse Joy says.

Over the next few days, as Honedge is recovering, Ash informs Professor Oak and his Pokémon about catching Honedge, but not being able to talk to her yet as she is still recovering. Sceptile and Butterfree seem ok with that after Ash promises to rotate his team around to continue to train them the same way as before and let them meet their new teammate. During the next few days training, Ash begins to seriously wonder what Greninja's ability is as he has yet to have Torrent activate, the Water-type version of Blaze. He also hasn't showed any signs of having Protean, which is usually shown by a change in a Pokémon's skin color of some kind as they mold different types of energy. For example, if a Greninja with Protean would use Gunk Shot, the blue of Greninja's skin would turn into the purple of Poison-type energy. It worries Ash because a Pokémon without an ability, is at a severe disadvantage when in battle compared to others. There are lots of Pokémon used by strong trainers who have no ability but they very rarely are able to reach the same level as others.

It takes about a week for Honedge to recover enough for Ash to talk with her about why she doesn't absorb life energy like other ghosts. Ash had Sceptile switch with Greninja at Professor Oak's to help translate anything she said and because his other Pokémon would have made her uncomfortable. With Greninja being Dark-type, Infernape and Charizard being Fire-type, and because of Ghost-types and Normal-types being immune to each other, they are almost always uncomfortable around the other. Apparently, she hates the idea of taking too much energy from someone and killing them, and because of that other ghosts didn't like her very much and would battle her past the point where she could recover.

"Would you like to come with me and get stronger, Honedge?" Ash asks, "I know I captured you to get you here, but if you don't want to come with me then I could release you back in the tower."

Honedge looks at him for a moment before poking Ash carefully with the blue cloth attached to her hilt. Ash just smiles and thanks Honedge before leaving her to finish recovering. As Ash sets up the rest of his Pokémon for training and decides to check Honedge's moves to figure out how he should train her. She knows Metal Sound, Shadow Ball, Flash Cannon and Shadow Sneak. Not the largest move set for a Pokémon but definitely one he can work with. Over the next few days, Infernape teaches Charizard Heat Wave, Sceptile learns Stone Edge, one of the most powerful and versatile Rock-type attacks, Snorlax learns Earthquake from Heracross and Greninja has learned Hydro Pump and has started working on Night Slash, a strong slashing attack that uses Dark-type energy to get most of its power. Once Honedge is able to begin training, Ash has Heracross teach her how to use Brick Break and Shadow Claw which only take her a few days to learn. Ash gets Sceptile and Butterfree back from Professor Oak and send Infernape and Heracross back. It only takes a week to get to Saffron City from Lavender Town, but during that time Greninja masters Night Slash and Waterfall, which are unsurprising since he has been able to use Dark Pulse and Surf and begins working on Acrobatics. Honedge battle enough to gain the experience needed to evolve into Doublade, and his other Pokémon are showing definite improvement in their speed and power. Charizard was able to learn Solarbeam within a few hours and thanks to his Solar Power ability, mastered it before the day was over. Sceptile also finally started on learning Synthesis, it was a little tricky since it involved the same process as Solarbeam, but instead of focusing the energy into a single beam for an attack, he has to let the energy spread throughout his body.

Once Ash arrives at Saffron, he heads to the Pokémon Center to heal his team and get a room for the next few days. He decides to buy a Dusk Stone if the Pokémart has any in stock and wait until Doublade is a little more powerful before letting her anywhere near the stone. Unfortunately, they sold their last Dusk Stone about a week previously and aren't getting any more until their next shipment in about a month and a half.

The next day Ash decides it's time for him to fight the Saffron Gym, and he can't confidently say he will win this one. The other gyms he's fought have always involved him having some kind of advantage, either his Pokémon had a direct type advantage, like in Pewter or Celadon, or he had moves his Pokémon knew that would give them an advantage, like Butterfree knowing Mega Drain in Cerulean. But this time Infernape and Heracross both have a type disadvantage to Psychic-type attacks, and Doublade is a little too weak to battle at a high level for very long. But, he thinks that despite that, his team should be able to handle the gym.

Arriving at the surprisingly empty gym, Ash signs up for challenging the gym and walks into the battlefield with the gym leader waiting for him.

"Hello Ash Ketchum, my name is Sabrina Shiryoku. Our match will be a 3-on-5 battle, will that be acceptable?" She asked him in a completely blank voice.

Feeling a little weirded out by her voice, he nods and the referee begins the match.

Sabrina sends out an Alakazam, while Ash releases Greninja

"Begin!" the referee yells and Ash immediately springs into action with a yell of, "Dark Pulse!"

"Dazzling Gleam." Sabrina ordered in that same tone of voice.

While Greninja formed an orb of black energy and launched it at Alakazam, Alakazam responded by crossing its spoons and lighting them a bright pink color before a bright flash lit the battlefield and Greninja yelled out in pain. Ash grit his teeth, Dazzling Gleam was one move that was extremely difficult move to counter. How do you stop a flash of light mixed with Fairy-type energy?

"Greninja, Hydro Pump!"

"Zap Cannon." Ash's eyes widened but before he could call off Greninja's attack, the Zap Cannon was formed between the two spoons and shot through the Hydro Pump, evaporating it on contact from the heat of the attack. Surprisingly, despite the speed of the attack, Greninja was able to avoid the attack and used Acrobatics to get close. Ash could also see the beginning of Night Slash forming, but right after Greninja punch Alakazam with Acrobatics, Alakazam glowed with Fighting-type energy and punched Greninja back. Hard enough that Greninja went flying back and had trouble moving when he got back up. Before Ash could even figure out what that move was Sabrina called for the finishing move, "Dazzling Gleam." The flash of Fairy energy was bright enough that Ash had to look away and when he looked back Greninja was on the ground, unconscious.

"Greninja is unable to battle, Alakazam wins." Ash was in shock, Greninja was beaten in 4 moves. His species might not be a tank like Snorlax, but he was definitely not weak.

"I guess I have to try and overpower that one, huh? Charizard! You're up!" He yelled.

Charizard appeared in a flash of light and roared his presence and glared at the Alakazam, who looked back with just as blank a face as its trainer.

"Begin!"

"Charizard, Sun Thrower." Ash was tentatively working on combination commands with his Pokémon the last few days. Sun Thrower being a simple Sunny Day and Flamethrower combination that would allow Ash more time to watch the battle. Plus, it sounded seriously cool in his opinion. Charizard responded in an instant by shooting a ball of fire into the air to act as a miniature sun and let loose a massive Flamethrower. Alakazam tried to launch another Zap Cannon, but had to abandon that plan and Teleport away to avoid the massive fire attack.

"Psychic." Ash paled again. He was so focused on the raw power of Alakazam's attacks that he forgot that Charizard is his only Pokémon with no real way to force Alakazam to stop Psychic, except by brute forcing his way through the attack. Butterfree may know Psychic, but he can't pull out nearly the same amount of power for the move as a fully trained Alakazam, yet. Charizard roared in pain but was somehow able to figure out where Alakazam was and launched a Flamethrower at it before spreading his wings and using Heat Wave as he pushed them down and took flight. The massive gust of hot air hit Alakazam right as it teleported and pushed him off balance enough for Charizard to swoop in and land a devastating Fire Punch, knocking Alakazam out.

"Alakazam is unable to battle, Charizard wins!"

Sabrina returned Alakazam and thinks for a moment, before sending out a Mr. Mime that looks around for a moment before locking eyes with Charizard and grinning.

"Begin!"

"Nasty Plot." Sabrina ordered almost simultaneously with the referee's announcement.

"Charizard, Solarbeam!" Ash yelled, no reason to have Charizard use all of his fire power and have Solar Power overheat him more than it will by the end of this battle.

"Match it." Sabrina says before Mr. Mime holds his hands apart and charges a ball of Grass-type energy almost as large as Charizard's before launching the attack at the same moment Charizard does. The attacks collide and neither is able to overpower the other.

"Charizard, break off the attack. Get in close and Flamethrower, point blank." Charizard stopped his Solarbeam, and flew down to Mr. Mime at a fairly decent speed, before charging a vastly overpowered Flamethrower.

"Barrier, don't let anything through." Sabrina ordered. Ash really began to wonder why she didn't seem to have any tone of voice. Nonetheless, Flamethrower seemed to burn the Barrier like a steel wall but it never broke. After the Sunny Day ran out, Charizard cut the flames and before he could catch a breath Mr. Mime shot a Charge Beam and hit Charizard, instantly knocking him out.

"Charizard is unable to battle, Mr. Mime wins."

'Mr. Mime is one of the few Fairy-type Pokémon that can be found in Kanto,' Ash thinks, 'Doublade would have complete type advantage here, but can she fight on par with a Pokémon able to use enough power to match Charizard? No, I can't use her yet, if Mr. Mime can use Shadow Ball, it would be over in an instant.'

"Sceptile! You're up!" Ash yelled, hoping Sceptile would be strong enough to break through any barriers it sets up

"Begin!"

"Leaf Blade! Don't hold back, it'll make barriers that you have to break through." Ash said trying to make plans on the different actions Mr. Mime can take.

"Shadow Ball. Push it back." Mr. Mime proceeded to make at least ten different Shadow Balls and threw them all at Sceptile before he even took two steps. Proving Ash correct in not using Doublade for this part of the battle.

"Cut through them." Ash said. 'Hopefully that makes Mr. Mime lose sight of Sceptile for a moment and gives him enough time to get up close.'

"Signal Beam when it gets in range." He hears over the small explosions from the Shadow Balls being broken apart by Leaf Blade. Ash is surprised by the Mr. Mime, so far it has used Dark-, Electric-, and Ghost-, and now Bug-type energy as well. It might not be the most naturally powerful Pokémon Ash has seen, but it is certainly skilled. Thankfully, Sceptile is able to jump over the Bug-type attack and Leaf Blade hits Mr. Mime with nothing slowing it down. It throws Mr. Mime back into a wall, but it looks up and with surprising strength lifts its arms so that all of the small pads on its fingers shine pink for barely a second before a Dazzling Gleam, even brighter and stronger than the ones from Alakazam used, light the battlefield and when Ash can see again he sees Mr. Mime clearly on its last legs, but Sceptile falls over, knocked out by the Fairy-type attack.

"Sceptile is unable to battle, Mr. Mime wins."

Ash is dumbfounded now. Sure, Mr. Mime won't last much longer, but it has managed to take down both his strongest and fastest Pokémon back to back. Ash feels his respect for the species rise up a few notches. 'I can't let Butterfree out here, if that Mr. Mime knows Charge Beam, chances are that is also knows Thunderbolt. And with all the power it has been throwing out, Butterfree would drop instantly. This might be the last clear opportunity for Doublade to make an appearance, there is no way Snorlax will be able to beat Mr. Mime and weaken whatever her next Pokémon is enough for Doublade to not have to put it all on the line.'

"Doublade, let's show 'em what you got!" Ash yelled. "Be careful, it might look down and out, but it outlasted Charizard and was able to beat Sceptile."

Doublade turned one of its swords/eyes to look at Ash and nodded before turning back around and focusing on Mr. Mime.

"Begin!"

Doublade immediately split into two separate swords and prepared Flash Cannon in one and a Shadow Ball in the other. 'I should find a way to teach Doublade Double Team once she evolves so she can keep that move.'

The Mr. Mime countered by forming two Shadow Balls and having them intercept Doublade's attacks. Unfortunately it was unprepared for the Flash Cannon to break through and got hit on side of its head before dropping instantly and not getting back up.

"Mr. Mime is unable to battle! Doublade wins!"

This time Ash did get a reaction from Sabrina, but it was only a small amount of her eyes narrowing before she sent out a Jynx. He could have imagined that though, just wishing he got a rise out of the Psychic Gym Leader at some point.

"Begin!"

"Shadow Claw!" Ash called. "If you can't get close, use Shadow Sneak." Sabrina gave no orders but Jynx was able to avoid the Shadow Claw. Shadow Sneak was different though, unlike other priority attacks that focused power into a relatively weak attack to allow the user to move exceptionally fast for a short period of time, Shadow Sneak worked by the ghost merging with shadows near the target and coming out of their shadow to get a quick attack in before they could react before fleeing again. And yet Jynx was still able to avoid the attacks for a full minute before forming a Shadow Ball and turning right to her shadow preparing for when Doublade came out.

"Get back Doublade! It's waiting for you!" Unfortunately, Doublade wasn't able to stop her attack in time. She did however form a Shadow Ball of her own and launch it at Jynx at the same time she launched hers at Doublade. The resulting explosion of attacks worries Ash as he prepares to recall Doublade.

'There's no way she was able to take that head on.' Ash thought, 'with how that Mr. Mime fought by boosting itself constantly? There's no way that Sabrina didn't train her Jynx to do the same.' As the smoke finally cleared Ash saw Doublade on the ground struggling, unsuccessfully, to get back up while Jynx has moved back to Sabrina's side of the field. Ash didn't hesitate to recall her.

"Doublade is unable to battle, Jynx wins."

Ash mentally yelled. Butterfree was one of the only Pokémon he has with a type advantage with this gym, and every one of Sabrina's Pokémon had the power to run through Butterfree along with moves to take advantage of his Flying-typing. "Do or die time. Snorlax! You're it!" Ash yelled and released his massive behemoth.

"Begin!"

"Jynx use Lovely Kiss." Ash narrowed his eyes as the Jynx formed a weird set of lips from thin air and it actually gave Snorlax a kiss. It looks like Sabrina is planning on relying on Sleep Talk not letting Snorlax attack. Let's see who gets lucky.

"Snorlax, Sleep Talk." Ash said after Snorlax fell over and started sleeping. Snorlax grumbled for a moment before his arm glowed with brown energy and he smacked it on the floor. Jynx stumbled for a moment but used Psyshock, a weird psychic move that required the user to condense Psychic-energy in the air into a tangible ball, or multiple of them, and then throwing them all at the opponent and hurting a Pokémon based on their physical defense, rather than their special. Snorlax yells because of the attack but continues sleeping, making Ash worried.

"Focus Blast Jynx, finish this."

"Snorlax, Sleep Talk again." Ash called, but this time Snorlax just grumbled a lot before quieting down again. Ash frowned. One of the drawbacks of Sleep Talk is that it might use a move that doesn't attack at all, in this case it either made Snorlax use Rest, which would have failed because he is already asleep, or Curse, which would not help the current situation at all. It wasn't a moment later that Jynx threw a ball of focused Fighting-type energy at Snorlax and hit him, actually moving Snorlax enough to wake him up. But before Ash could tell Snorlax to use a move, Jynx used Focus Blast again and knocked Snorlax out.

"Snorlax is unable to battle, Jynx wins. The challenger Ash Ketchum is out of usable Pokémon, the winner is Gym Leader Sabrina."

Ash recalled and Snorlax in a slight daze. He honestly thought he had trained his Pokémon enough to be able to fight at a strong enough level to fight the level of a Gym Leader's true team. But what ended up happening was his team got demolished by half of Sabrina's, with what looked like almost no real effort against most of his team.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Ash refocuses on the world around him and watches as Jynx tries to glide along the ground back to Sabrina but falls before she even took a step.

"You were close." Sabrina says as she recalls Jynx. "You were able to bring my first, and strongest, three Pokémon to their limits. It has been a while since they had such a battle."

The words should have made Ash ecstatic, but Ash could only focus on the fact he was so close. Could he have trained his Pokémon differently? Would using Butterfree been smarter? Could he have done better?

"You're Pokémon are very well trained for being a rookie team." Sabrina says. "Did you start with the other trainers this year?"

"Yea, I've only been training for about four months now." Ash said, and then everything clicked into place in his mind. He's been training for only four months, and Sabrina had to use her strongest Pokémon to stop him. It might have seemed a little unfair to have to fight the strongest Pokémon on her team, but considering Ash was so close to winning she might have foreseen the need to use her strongest to beat him. There have always been rumors that the Psychic-type Gym Leaders have all kinds of different abilities like that.

"I'll be back in a week or two to challenge you again." Ash tells her. "After coming so close, leaving without beating you would just feel wrong."

Sabrina actually reacts finally and smiles slightly, "Then I look forward to your next challenge Ash Ketchum, it will definitely be an interesting battle."

After returning to the Pokémon Center and getting his team healed, he releases them all and begins going over what the next few weeks of training will be like. Butterfree will work exclusively on his speed and special attack so that he can fight on even terms with the stronger members of the team without relying on Quiver Dance, a harsh order for training but necessary. Sceptile and Charizard will both be going to Professor Oak, with Charizard training with Oak's Charizard to bring his strength to the next level. Ash couldn't help but notice in the battle that he relied too much on Solar Power and Quiver Dance to let his Pokémon jump ahead, instead of letting it just be a boost to an already strong Pokémon. Infernape and Heracross will also be coming back to help Greninja get better at close range fighting, if he was more experienced with that, he might have been able to avoid Alakazam's Counter and that would have made all the difference. Snorlax will also be using the Power Bracer to start increasing his physical strength while training. Doublade became a little depressed after her defeat, but thankfully Ash was able to get her out of it and she put all of her efforts into getting as strong as the rest of the team. Despite not being in her final evolutionary stage, however, she was able to keep up for a few minutes during the practice battles before she would be overwhelmed.

Around 5 days later, as Ash is walking to the Pokémart to refill some of his supplies, he sees a few Team Rocket members sneak in the back door of Silph Co.'s office building. If the 50-story building could be called an office. Seeing no one around, and thinking the league wouldn't do much if he just said he thought he saw a few Team Rocket members walking around Saffron, he snuck into the same door he saw the grunts walk in. Deciding to be extra careful, he released Butterfree and Greninja, telling Greninja to stick close and Butterfree to get ready to hit any Rocket that gets too close. Both of them got worried when he mentioned Team Rocket, and they both tensed before paying even more attention to their surroundings. After searching through the first floor and seeing a few other Team Rocket watching over a group of people, who Ash assumed were Silph employees, Ash decided he had enough evidence to call the League and get them to handle the problem. When he got near the back door to leave, he heard some people talking on the other side and had to make his way to an empty room. If he couldn't leave, he had to let the League know somehow. So he found an empty room and pulled out his phone to call them. But for some reason, he had no signal.

'They must have a few Magnezone or something,' Ash thought, 'I remember reading a warning in the manual about them interfering with cell phone signals.' Ash shook his head, he has to focus. Team Rocket has Silph held hostage and he is the only one who can do anything about it.

"Ok guys," Ash said quietly, "We have to take out all of the Team Rocket people that are here. And we're the only ones who can do this." Greninja and Butterfree both looked at Ash with determination filling their eyes and nodded, ready to do what they need to, to stop Team Rocket. Over the next hour and a half Ash slowly worked his way through all of the floors and had Butterfree use Sleep Powder on all the grunts, telling the Silph employees to tie up the grunts, watch them and stay put so he could save the rest of the floors without alerting Team Rocket. Thankfully, they all understood, so Ash was able to get to the top floor without anyone really noticing him. Sneaking on to the final floor was simple, there weren't any guards on the stairway but when he got onto the top floor he saw two men in suits talking, while behind one of them were two people in something like Team Rocket uniforms but different colors than the typical all black shirt and pants with a big red R on the front. One of them was a man with purple colored hair shaped like a Mohawk, with black long sleeved shirt and pants, but he had large white gloves and boots. The other was a woman with shoulder length red hair wearing a white, long-sleeved dress with heeled boots. Unfortunately, before Ash could figure out what to do, the man in the suit that is clearly more nervous looks at Ash and he suddenly he finds himself the center of attention in the room.

"Hey, Ariana?" the purple haired man said. "Doesn't that look like the kid with all those rare Pokémon that got away on route 16?"

"Hmm… He could be," The woman, Ariana apparently, said, "Basic trainer attire, hat, dark hair, young male," she paused, "A Frogadier that apparently has evolved into Greninja. Yes I would guess that he is the one."

"Archie," the purple haired one asked the man with light blue hair, "Can we kill him and take his Pokémon? You haven't let us fight anyone today."

"Just make sure you end it quickly, we don't need him to break the building and alert the league." That really wasn't what Ash was hoping to hear.

Petrel sends out a Weezing while Ariana sends out an Arbok. Butterfree doesn't hesitate and uses Tailwind and Stun Spore to try and end the battle quickly but Weezing uses Flamethrower to burn away the powder. Greninja followed that with Hydro Pump to wash away the flames and the markings on Arbok's hood glows purple before a Gunk Shot is thrown to intercept the Hydro Pump. Butterfree tries a Psychic on one of them, but before either of them shows a sign of being affected, they both charged Dark-type energy and made the attack impossible.

Neither set of Pokémon were able to break through the other teams defenses, any time Butterfree tried to use Psybeam or Air Slash the attacks were broken by a Dark Pulse from Weezing, or a Gunk Shot from Arbok. Greninja wasn't idle, but any time he tried to get close, Weezing would use Sludge Wave to cover the area in front of itself and then Arbok would try to use Crunch. Surf could only push it back so much and it would always use Aqua Tail to redirect the Hydro Pumps into the walls. Surprisingly, after about ten minutes Greninja got much faster and his Surfs were able to completely wash away Weezing's Sludge Waves.

"Weezing, Belch Bomb!" Ash wondered how the move would work, but before he let it distract him he gave Butterfree his orders.

"Air Sla-." Ash wasn't able to give the command before Weezing burped a huge Sludge Bomb. Greninja rushed in front of it with a large Dark Pulse in his hands before throwing it at the bomb and getting obscured by the smoke. Less than a second later the smoke glows and is blown away revealing Greninja with an entirely different form that… almost looks like him? Ash pulls out his Pokédex to scan Greninja and it takes almost 10 seconds before saying, "Possible ability match identified; Battle Bond. Pokémon may increase power and speed throughout a difficult battle. Currently, there have only been four recorded cases of a Pokémon having the ability in the past ten years. For further information, speak with your regional professor at your earliest opportunity."

Ash watched as Greninja suddenly shot forward faster than he had ever moved before, covered in Water-type energy that Ash belatedly realized was a massively powerful Waterfall. Greninja collided with Arbok before it could react and sent the snake flying before taking the energy from Waterfall and launching a Hydro Pump that completely coves the Weezing and pushes it into a wall knocking it out.

"Enough," the blue haired man said before the other two could send out another Pokémon, what was his name again? Archie, right. "If he has such a Pokémon, we have nothing that can stop him without alerting people to our presence. We will leave now while we still have a chance to." The Purple haired man looked like he would ignore those orders but one look from his boss and he nodded and let go of his pokéballs. "We'll meet again soon Ash Ketchum, only next time we won't have to worry about if we alert anyone." With that Archie released an Alakazam and the three Team Rocket leaders teleported away. With the battle over Butterfree and Ash walked over to Greninja who looked both stronger than ever and like he could fall over at any moment. Greninja is able to hold himself for a few seconds before falling over and his form reverts back to normal. Ash recalls him and apologizes for not being able to heal him immediately. The man who is still there introduces himself as the Silph CEO, Arthur Amla, and they were finally able to call the League and report the Team Rocket Takeover, as some of the employees were already calling it. Barely minutes later, a few Ace trainers teleport in with Sabrina leading them.

Ash and the Silph co. give their statements on what happened and after they all do Sabrina walks up to Ash.

"You were able to do all of this on your own?" she asked and Ash had a feeling she wasn't surprised. "Not many trainers with years of experience would have been able to accomplish that, leave alone the fact you are a rookie in your first 6 months of training. Because of this, within the next few days the League will place a mark on your profile labeling you as an honorary Ace Trainer. This rank gives you less authority than a true Ace Trainer, but you are given a direct line to an Ace Trainer supervisor in case something happens that you feel the need to report. You might also be called on if a situation occurs that the League requires your assistance in."

Ash is a little confused on why she would tell him this before anyone in the League would even know about this, but decided maybe she did actually have some psychic powers. "Thanks for telling me, but can I go to the Pokémon Center now? I really need to make sure Greninja is ok after he unlocked that weird ability."

Sabrina stared blank faced at him and said, "I would also personally like to offer you a place to stay for your time in Saffron City. The Saffron Gym. It would paint less of a target on your back and give you a more private training area for training your Greninja's Battle Bond form. Blaine, the Cinnabar Gym Leader, is one of the only other people in the world who have a Pokémon with that ability. According to his accounts, training the form was extremely strenuous and dangerous. Training in the gym would allow you nearly constant access to a restoration machine and you wouldn't have to worry about random trainers coming up to you to interrupt the training, either."

Ash hadn't even thought of that, having the fifth Pokémon of an ability would make anyone who sees it extremely curious and he would have constant interruptions in training it. And if he was able to get Sabrina to get him in touch with someone who already has trained with the ability, it would be an immense help. "Thank you for the offer," he told her, "I think I'll take you up on it."

Sabrina nodded and released her Alakazam. "Alakazam, please teleport with Ash to the gym and show him to the restoration machine." The Alakazam nodded and walked over to Ash before focusing on him. Before Ash could think of a response, Alakazam's glowed while he stared at Ash and the two suddenly appeared in the lobby of the gym. Deciding to make sure Greninja is ok before anything else happened, he asked Alakazam to show him to the machine quickly. The Alakazam nodded and took Ash to the restoration machine quickly, getting Greninja into it within a few minutes of arriving. Now that everything was calm and Ash could stop and think, he was surprised at everything that happened. This morning he was just training his Pokémon like any other day, and by lunch he stopped a Team Rocket invasion, fought and defeated two high ranking people within said organization, was given an honorary rank within the League and invited to train at the city's gym. But most importantly, he found out that Greninja has one of the rarest abilities he has ever heard of, to the point of never having heard of it before the Pokédex scanned Greninja.

"Oh yea," Ash said to himself, "The Pokédex said that I should call Professor Oak to learn about it." Ash pulled out his phone and after a few rings Professor Oak answered.

"Hello Ash," the professor said cheerfully, "How are you doing?"

"I've been better," Ash told him and launched into his story of what happened at Silph Co. "The weirdest thing happened with Greninja though, during that whole battle he never showed any signs of slowing down, despite looking more and more tired. In fact every time he attacked he got faster until he blocked an attack. When the smoke cleared and we could see him again, he looked different. Honestly, he looked almost like me. And then when he attacked he took down the Weezing and Arbok in one move. It was crazy."

"Ash," Professor Oak said after a minute of thinking, "You said you scanned Greninja when that happened with your Pokédex? What did it say was happening?"

"Um, I think it said it was a possible match for Battle Bond. What is that?" Ash heard Professor Oak gasp.

"If Greninja really does have Battle Bond, then you have truly been training him well. If memory serves, there have been four cases that have been recorded of Pokémon with Battle Bond in the past decade. A Conkeldurr, a Weavile, a Galvantula, and a Rapidash. Pokémon with Battle Bond tend to become the backbone of the teams for their trainers, and the rest of the teams weren't pushovers by any means." The professor explained. "But for you to have trained a Pokémon enough for it to manifest in four months? Astounding."

"Yes, but what is it? The Pokédex didn't really do much to explain that." Ash said with a little confusion.

"Ah, yes." Professor Oak said after he calmed down from the discovery. "Well, it is essentially a power boost that combines the strength of the bond between trainer and Pokémon, along with the physical strength of them both. So far the only way that the ability has manifested is during a time where a fully evolved Pokémon with no sign of an ability has a very stressful battle with their trainer. We, that is the few professors to have studied Battle Bond, have noticed that the bond between the trainer and Pokémon has to be unshakeable, and the Pokémon already needs to be very powerful. We've also noted that in order to actually train the ability, the trainer needs to have his team spar with the Pokémon with Battle Bond while he and the Pokémon continuously fight back together until the form changes again. We haven't found a link to what can actually cause the full transformation yet, but we have noticed that the strength and speed of the Pokémon should slowly increase until their body is forced to transform so it can hold the power without harm."

Ash thought on that for a few minutes while taking notes in his Pokédex and talking with Professor Oak some more before he brought up a few concerns he was starting to have. "Professor," he began, "That guy I'm assuming is in charge said that we would be meeting soon. Do you think that they'll come after me again?"

Professor Oak suddenly sounded very nervous, "Well, they obviously thought you were a person of interest before, but after you showed them that you could defend yourself against a large group they probably thought you weren't worth the trouble it would take to bring you down. But with Greninja showing such a rare ability, I highly doubt they will let you go easily. Where are you now?"

"I'm in the Saffron City Gym, the leader offered me a place to stay while I continue training for our next fight."

"I would suggest staying there until all of your Pokémon are at least as strong as a Gym Leader's team, Ash. There is a reason that Team Rocket tries to stay away from the Cities with gyms, they just don't have the fire power to be able to beat a Leader going all out." Professor Oak said.

"Well, I wasn't going to leave Saffron until I could beat Sabrina. I was close with the handicap, her third Pokémon fainted just after the match was called and she did say that the three she used were her strongest. Maybe she could help me train a little and help my team get to that level." Ash told him.

"Oh, yes. I forgot you managed to get your fifth badge already." Professor Oak said. "Leaf and Yellow just got their fourth few days ago, and Gary got his around a week ago but, from what he's told me, he's waiting until his team is able to go one-on-one with a gym leader's team before he tries anymore. Apparently it took him a few tries to beat Erika and he realized he had a long way to go."

"Did he have to fight her giant Parasect? I saw it fighting at the Game Corner and I definitely don't want to see how strong it really is."

"He did actually. He said, and I quote, 'If she can raise a Parasect to be as strong as that one is, there should be no reason that I can't get Pidgeot so much stronger.' And then he asked me everything he could think of on how to train one." Professor Oak laughed here. "He actually left his Pidgeot here to train with mine and learn everything she could. Something like what you are doing with your Charizard actually."

Learning that his rival was getting his Pidgeot is getting trained by a Champion level Pokémon pleasantly surprises Ash. It would be a shame if he was the only one to have asked Professor Oak for training like that. The next time the two of them battle will definitely be fun. "Thanks for letting me know professor. I want to go and talk with my team on what happened earlier, but can you get Charizard and Sceptile so I can tell them myself? They'll probably be a little upset that they couldn't help out. I'll find a video phone here while you get them so they can see I am fine."

It turned out that "a little upset" did not even begin to describe how his two Pokémon felt. Charizard, despite clearly being exhausted from his training, had to be talked out of flying to Saffron right then. Sceptile also looked like he wanted to cut through the mountains and forests between Pallet and Saffron but didn't act like he would take off like his teammate. After telling them what happened he let out the Pokémon he had with him and showed that everyone was fine, and Greninja wasn't hurt but just severely exhausted because of using his Battle Bond form for the first time. After telling his team that they all would be pushing to new heights to keep up with Greninja's new form, they all got a little too excited and Ash had to end the call so everyone could start their training.

Greninja woke up about three hours later, with Ash telling him about his ability and what it would mean for his training. He looked shocked for a moment before nodding and getting up to watch everyone else train. Butterfree actually learned how to use Signal Beam very quickly that day, which was fairly simple since the move was exactly like Psybeam but used Bug-type energy instead. He also started work on Bug Buzz, a vastly more difficult technique that worked by filling the air with Bug-type energy and forcing the energy to vibrate. The move was particularly effective against Psychic-, and Dark-types, along with Pokémon that levitated naturally like Magneton. By surrounding the area with Bug-type energy, Bug Buzz is able to make psychics uncomfortable enough that it becomes much harder for them to manipulate Psychic-type energy in the air, and almost as hard to use the energy in their own bodies by disconnecting them to their environment. Dark-types are in a similar boat because they can't connect to the darkness around them to seemingly disappear, like Greninja liked to do if the environment suited him. And levitating Pokémon have a much harder time connecting to the forces that let them levitate with all of the extra energy in the air.

Infernape and Heracross also worked together enough to learn Focus Blast, despite Heracross naturally having very little power with special attacks. Doublade and Snorlax took their time just naturally increasing their strength and focusing their moves so they used less power for a greater effect, and Ash decided that since their moves were at a good level they would spend the week working on their strength.

Sabrina also returned to the gym about an hour after Greninja woke up. She told him that the Silph building was cleared of all of the Rockets he helped take down, and that the League had sent the reports to Elite Four Lance, who was the main investigator for Team Rocket. She also showed him where he would be sleeping, where he could get his meals, and where he could find Sabrina if she wasn't dealing with a challenger. Ash was ecstatic when she told him that if he needed help with training his Pokémon for something that he could ask her, but decided only to ask her for help if he got really stuck on how to learn a move. After getting dinner Ash decided that it was late enough to sleep because of how long today was and was asleep almost as soon as he laid in the bed in his borrowed room.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Firstly I'd like to say i'm really surprised that so many people have Favorited the story. I didn't think it would be that interesting but i'm glad you all do. Second, this chapter gets a little dark for a bit so trigger warning. Honestly it's why I rated the story what it is. **  
**Oh! I also just remembered i haven't put a disclaimer, so in case it hasn't been obvious: I don't own Pokemon in any way. Just the ideas i come up with that are used here. I won't put any Author's Notes except for if there is a scene i feel i should warn people about or if something serious must be addressed, so don't worry about that. Anyway, on with the story c:**

Chapter 10

The following week was the hardest for Ash and his Pokémon both. Because of Professor Oak telling him that Greninja's Battle Bond was partly affect by his own strength, he decided to start an intense exercise routine every morning that would get him in better shape over the next few months. He might spend most of his days traveling, but he never really thought of getting himself into shape before now. His Pokémon also heard about exactly how much stronger Greninja could get in this new form from Butterfree and pushed themselves harder than ever so that they didn't get left behind. Butterfree could hold almost twice the power from Quiver Dance now, and Infernape was able to pull enough power naturally that Ash thought he was using Blaze a few times throughout the training. Snorlax and Doublade easily doubled their own strength and caught up, and surpassed, some of the other members of the team with Heracross joining them to make sure he wasn't passed by either of them. Greninja, meanwhile, focused almost entirely on pushing himself further and further with his new ability and was able to transform a few times during the week, but could never hold the form for more than about five minutes at a time. While in the form, he also was able to pour more power into his attacks and was able to learn Rock Slide very easily once he tried it while transformed. With Butterfree's help, he also learned how to use enough Psychic-type energy for Extrasensory. A strange move that pulled Psychic-type energy from the area to force the target to gain some kind of sixth sense that could completely overwhelm them and make them stop moving for a few seconds to try and get used to the sensation. Ash switched Charizard for Infernape a few days into training and learned that he was stronger than ever, and really wanted to help push Greninja as far as he could go. The progress that his team made in that week alone was staggering, but it made Ash appreciate their efforts even more.

At the end of his week of self-imposed training, Ash decided that he had taken enough of Sabrina's hospitality and needed to challenge her again, so gave his team a day purely to relax before challenging her. The next day, after signing the form that registered when he challenged the gym, Ash walked into the battlefield completely ready for his battle, even after Sabrina made a slight change.

"I would like to change this match from a three-on-five handicap to a four-on-five if that is acceptable. The handicap is really only meant for rookies who haven't taken their training as seriously as you and your team have." She told him.

"Let me ask my team." Ash told her, after a moment of thinking. "They all want a chance this time and a four-on-five would be a good opportunity for them to prove how strong they've gotten, but I don't want to make that decision without them." Ash quickly released his Pokémon and they all agreed, but wanted a bigger challenge. After a minute Ash realized what they were asking for. "Are… Are you all serious? You all remember how strong she is right? Do you think we can actually beat her without a handicap?" They all looked at him with complete seriousness and nodded. "All right. Sabrina, my team wants a full five-on-five match. Can we do that?"

Sabrina smiled slightly. "We can if the challenger requests that. Usually people don't like to take a harder match than they have to, but it will be nice to have a real match again."

After she said that, the referee from his last match with Sabrina walked into his area and called for the match to begin. Ash took a moment to think if he had actually seen the man during the past week and realized that aside from training, all he did was sleep and eat. He hadn't even seen Sabrina in the past week, despite her offer of help. Before too long, Ash sent out Butterfree while Sabrina sent out a strong looking Slowbro.

"Begin!"

"Calm Mind." Sabrina said without missing a second of time.

"Bug Buzz." Ash responded, anything that disrupted her psychic moves would be appreciated.

"Fire Blast." Ash saw the eyes on the semi-Shellder attached to Slowbro's tail glow for a moment before Slowbro opened its mouth and launched a large ball of fire at Butterfree, who avoided the attack with the glow of Bug-type energy and a dance like movement.

'Great.' Ash thought with a smile. 'Looks like using Quiver Dance to avoid attacks turned out to be a good idea. Let's see if we can take advantage of this.'

"Butterfree, Signal Beam!" Ash called followed by Butterfree spreading his wings and shooting a massive cone of energy, pushing Slowbro back a few feet before the semi-Shellder's eyes glowed again. Slowbro attacked with a Hydro Pump a few seconds later. Maybe the Shellder formed a psychic connection with the Slowbro to let it react faster?

Butterfree fought the Hydro Pump for a few seconds before stopping Signal Beam and dancing around the water, launching a very powerful Air Slash in the process. Slowbro saw it coming and tried to stop it with a Thunderbolt, but Air Slash was able to push through the hastily formed Electric-type attack and hit it. Slowbro stood for a few seconds before falling over and revealing to everyone that it was unconscious.

"Slowbro is unable to battle, the winner is Butterfree." Sabrina recalls Slowbro and looks at Butterfree oddly for a moment before releasing Jynx.

"Begin!"

"Blizzard, don't let it dodge."

"Sunny Day! Quick!" Ash panicked. Despite being protected by a few layers of Quiver Dance, a Blizzard from Jynx would still be painful and wouldn't let Butterfree move very easily. Hopefully Sunny Day would weaken the attack enough for it to not have as great of an affect.

"Psychic." Sabrina calmly ordered once the Blizzard mostly melted from Sunny Day.

"You too, Butterfree. Psychic!" Ash responded. Normally using the same type of attack of a Pokémon wasn't a good idea, but Psychic was different. Really, the moment that one Pokémon was able to overpower the other in a battle of mental powers would let the other take the necessary moment needed to focus the energy and finish the battle in one move. It only took a moment for the air to show physical aspects of how much Psychic-type power was being poured from the two Pokémon. Ash could barely see the glow of their eyes, but was worried when the energy suddenly stopped and both Pokémon started panting hard and looking exhausted. Before he could give a command, Jynx used Ice Beam and landed a clean hit in Butterfree's wing, knocking him off balance and wide open for the follow up Shadow Ball.

"Butterfree is unable to battle, Jynx wins!"

Seeing as the Sunny Day was still active, Ash decided to take advantage of that and sent out Charizard.

"Begin!"

"Hail. Stop the sun." Sabrina ordered.

"Sunny Day, if she uses Hail again, use one just strong enough to clear the field and Fire Blast." Ash responded.

As Ash predicted, Jynx tried to overpower Sunny Day with Hail once again and was barely able to dodge the Fire Blast. Jynx responded with a Water Pulse, which Charizard blocked with his wing before shooting forward with his claws glowing silver. Jynx waited until Charizard was right on top of her before pushing her hands out and using a Blizzard that was strong enough that Ash lost sight of the two immediately. After a silent moment, Charizard roared and used Heat Wave, clearing out the Ice-type attack and revealing an unconscious Jynx at his feet.

"Jynx is unable to battle, Charizard wins!" Ash took a moment to look at Charizard as Sabrina recalled Jynx and noticed he was panting hard and that his tail flame was smaller than usual. The Blizzard must have been strong enough to lower his body temperature and Ash was not going to let Charizard push himself through that kind of injury. A Fire-type with a lowered body temperature is almost as dangerous to them as hypothermia is to a human, and is not something that Ash wanted to test his luck on.

"Charizard is too injured from his fight with Jynx," Ash told the referee, "If I let him, he would keep fighting, but Jynx lowered his body temperature too far for me to be comfortable letting him continue."

"Very well." The referee said, "Charizard is unable to continue, both trainers must release their next Pokémon." Sabrina released an Exeggutor while Ash sent out Heracross.

"Begin!"

Exeggutor started with using Sunny Day and Heracross seized the moment to charge a Megahorn and tried to land a clean hit. But somehow, the bulky, and slow looking, Exeggutor managed to avoid the attack before forming rocks around itself and throwing them at Heracross at an amazing speed. Heracross used Rock Slide to counter the Rock-type attack, then jumped in close with a Shadow Claw. Exeggutor avoided the attack again, then glowed green and formed a ball of energy in front of the center… egg? Head? Whichever. It launched a very powerful Solarbeam at Heracross who couldn't dodge in time and only was able to cross his arms to protect himself from the attack. A moment later Exeggutor turned slightly before a different head formed a Sludge Bomb and threw it at the still recovering Heracross.

"Heracross! Shadow Claw!" Heracross's eyes snap open at the first command of the battle and launched at the Sludge Bomb with a Shadow Claw. He tore it apart and rushed right at the Exeggutor, who clearly wasn't expecting that action and hastily used Reflect to dampen the blow. Unfortunately, it still got hit across the chest with a Shadow Claw that knocked it over. Exeggutor tried to get up, but Heracross used Rock Slide before it could, ending the battle.

"Exeggutor is unable to battle, Heracross wins!" three down, two to go.

Sabrina sends out Alakazam. "I'm did not think you would use such a self-destructive strategy."

"Begin!"

"Hound it Heracross. Don't let up." Ash said, knowing that with Guts active, it would always put Heracross on a pretty small timer. Planning for that, Ash had Heracross train on extremely fast, and strong, short bursts to overwhelm the opponent. It might not have increased his stamina, but the huge increase in Heracross' skill and power was not something Ash could deny. Hopefully that training will be enough to push Alakazam, if not beat the Psychic-type. Heracross didn't waste any time before launching at Alakazam with both claws covered in Ghost-type energy.

"Dazzling Gleam." Sabrina said before Alakazam crossed his spoons and a bright pink flash covered the battlefield. Heracross, in a bit of arrogance, crossed his still Shadow Claw covered arms and pushed through the attack before swiping at Alakazam who barely teleported out of the way before focusing and launching a Zap Cannon knocking Heracross out with a yell of pain.

"Heracross is unable to battle, Alakazam wins!"

Ash grins when he recalls Heracross and see Alakazam holding its left arm. "Looks like Alakazam wasn't fast enough to get out of the way completely. Nice job, Heracross. Greninja, your turn!" Ash called out.

"Begin!"

Greninja started the match with a full power Hydro Pump which Alakazam stopped with a Focus Blast. Following the explosion with a thin beam of Electric-type energy that Ash believed was a Charge Beam. "Acrobatics, Greninja! Get behind it." Ash called, and watched as Greninja skillfully avoided the attack before rushing behind Alakazam who turned instantly with a Dazzling Gleam prepared. As Alakazam released the attack however, Greninja continued moving around Alakazam and swung a Night Slash at Alakazam's exposed back. With the Reflect that Exeggutor used earlier barely cushioning the attack, sending Alakazam flying back. As Greninja prepared a Dark Pulse to finish off Alakazam, it teleported behind Greninja and immediately fired a Zap Cannon. Greninja was able to intercept the attack with his Dark Pulse, but the resulting explosion almost completely filled the battlefield with smoke. After a moment, Alakazam was thrown out of the smoke with Greninja trailing behind firing another Dark Pulse, throwing Alakazam back to the ground. Ash watched with bated breath as Alakazam tried to stand, before looking up at Greninja who was still falling and used Dazzling Gleam once more. Greninja countered it with a wide ranging Surf to try and overpower the Flash of Fairy-type energy. By the time Greninja landed, the floor of the gym was flooded and Alakazam was pushed on its back, unconscious from the fast paced and powerful fight. Ash didn't quite realize it at the time, but Greninja really pushed himself far in the past week. Greninja groaned for a second before his body flashed and he changed into the Battle Bond form.

"Alakazam is unable to battle, G-Greninja wins!" the referee stuttered on seeing Greninja change forms like that.

Sabrina silently recalled Alakazam and released Mr. Mime. When Mr. Mime was able to take in its surroundings, he took one look at Greninja before yelling in surprise and turning back to Sabrina. Sabrina just nodded, Mr. Mime turned around with a bit of apprehension clear in its stance.

"Begin!"

"Screens, Mr. Mime." Sabrina said, giving one of her only verbal commands of the match so far. Mr. Mime responded by separating its hands and creating a Reflect with one and a Light Screen with the other. Greninja responded by charging a Dark Pulse and firing it much faster than before. Mr. Mime let the Light Screen take most of the damage and charged a Dazzling gleam to push the Dark-type attack back. It worked, and Greninja had to quickly use Acrobatics to escape the flash before rushing back in with a Night Slash ready. Mr. Mime took the hit before he could even react, but thanks to Reflect it was able to recover and throw a Zap Cannon before moving too far. Greninja fell down, overcome with Electric-type energy before Mr. Mime hit him with the same attack knocking him unconscious.

"Greninja is unable to battle, Mr. Mime wins!"

Ash recalls Greninja with a grin. He might not have won the match, but he defeated Sabrina's strongest and pushed one of her other strongest pretty hard, even though reflect and Light Screen cut the power of his attacks in half. Ash didn't waste any more time and released Snorlax who gave the field a huge yawn before glaring down at Mr. Mime.

"Begin!"

"Calm Mind." Sabrina ordered

"Curse, then Earthquake Snorlax." Ash countered, smiling when he saw Sabrina's eyes widen slightly. Snorlax responded by yelling something at Mr. Mime, who gave Snorlax a very disappointed look before closing his eyes. Apparently Mr. Mime was of the opinion that it would be easier to ignore Snorlax's mouth if it couldn't see him. Ash grinned when Snorlax lifted his foot and stomped, causing a huge earthquake that never left the confines of the battlefield. Mr. Mime unfortunately was unable to keep his footing and fell over. Snorlax, however, was able to walk right through the shaking ground without a problem and when he reached Mr. Mime, who was still struggling to move, powered his fist with a bright white glowing energy, and threw the Mega Punch with all of his might. Mr. Mime, not wanting to take such a strong attack head on, formed a few Barriers that were supposed to weaken Mega Punch enough for Mr. Mime to take the hit. They would have, if they didn't break apart almost as soon as the Mega Punch pushed against them. Mr. Mime had no chance to think of anything except that this would hurt before the attack hit and sent it flying, unconscious as soon as contact was made.

"Mr. Mime is unable to battle, Snorlax wins! Gym Leader Sabrina has no remaining Pokémon, therefore the challenger, Ash Ketchum, is the winner!" Ash barely heard the referee say. He did it, he beat Sabrina and was absolutely elated that his team's training was enough. Seeing such a huge improvement in his team, in such a short time, really impressed and surprised him.

"You improved greatly in the short time you have stayed here." Sabrina said in the same empty tone she almost always seemed to use. "I'm impressed, and that does not happen often."

"Yea," Ash said scratching the back of his head, "After hearing about Greninja's Battle Bond everyone wanted to make sure they could keep up with him. They're all still trying really hard to push themselves, even Doublade. I'm hoping to let them keep training while I get to Cinnabar, as long as they want to keep getting stronger I'm going to do my best to help them."

"A good attitude." Sabrina said, "Make sure you continue to think like that. It will always serve you well. I see many paths open to you Ash Ketchum, may you choose the best one."

"Thanks." Ash said, slightly confused. "I've been keeping track of the ferries from Vermillion to Fuchsia and Fuchsia to Cinnabar, and if I want to make the one in Vermillion, I'll have to leave later today to make it. As it is, I'll have to ride Charizard for a few hours tomorrow to make sure I don't miss it. Thanks for letting me stay here for the past week, but I think it's time to continue on my journey."

"Yes, it would be in your best interest to continue." Sabrina said, "With the growth your team has shown in the past week, I would be very disappointed if you weren't able to make it to the conference because you failed to collect the necessary badges. You may use the restoration machines of the gym to heal your team. There are enough for both of our teams to be healed at the same time."

Ash thanked her and after waiting an hour for his Pokémon to finish their treatment, was able to leave Saffron before noon to start his trip to Vermillion.

The next few days, while hectic, were nothing particularly dangerous or special for Ash and his team. He was able to make it to the ferry with barely ten minutes before it departed and spent the following few days with light training, since none of his Pokémon wanted to sit still and relax. Maybe he would be able to train a little with Janine? He also has to check the Fuchsia Pokémart to see if they have a Dusk Stone so Doublade could evolve. He could always only let Doublade train in extremely dark caves for a few months with a regular stone attached to her to absorb the energy she would release into the darkness and make a true Dusk Stone, but her strength would be very limited until the stone finally absorbed the necessary energy. Not to mention that he really can't afford to spend the next however many months it would take stuck in a cave somewhere. When he got to the gym, he was able to talk to Janine, who was lounging around in the lobby, apparently waiting for someone to challenge the gym.

Janine was surprisingly happy to see Ash again, and immediately told him that she wanted to see how strong his team had gotten.

"Don't misunderstand, though!" She hastily corrected herself, "My team has really been pushed these last few days and I promised them the day off to rest and relax. But! I would love to see them spar."

"Sure." Ash told her, "They've been really trying to push themselves on their reward for beating Sabrina's team so I thought we could practice here while we wait for the ship to Cinnabar from Fuchsia."

"That sounds great!" Janine said excitedly, "When Blaine found out that someone with a Battle Bond was in the circuit this year and still had to challenge him he wanted to find out everything about you,"

"Blaine?" Ash asked

"Oh, right. I forget most trainers don't know the Gym Leaders' names until they challenge them." Janine laughed lightly, "Blaine is the Cinnabar Island Gym Leader. He was one of the very first people with a Battle Bond. He and his Flareon were actually the ones who were able to get us so much information about Battle Bond. Apparently, his Flareon is too old to really do much battling any more, but Blaine still loves to talk to anyone who will listen about the ability."

The spar wasn't really anything too special in Ash's opinion, just his team using some of their more controllable moves to try and hit the other. But apparently it was such an improvement over when he was last here that Janine shrieked multiple times while watching his team. The next three days were a strange mixture of training and contests between Ash's Pokémon and Janine's strongest. Greninja and two of Janine's Tentacruel were having Hydro Pump competitions judged on power and distance, while a particularly large Venomoth took to helping Butterfee learn how to use the boosts from Quiver Dance with more precision, while Butterfree kept trying to increase his natural speed and special attack at the same time. The fact that Butterfree, without any Quiver Dance boosts, could keep up with Greninja outside of him using Battle Bond, and able to push Charizard for a few minutes was more than impressive to Janine, especially when she saw exactly how strong those two were themselves. Sceptile and Charizard were learning from a Venusaur on more effective ways to absorb sunlight, although Sceptile had some trouble learning how to absorb sunlight from every bit of his body, mainly his tail. Normally he would just use the bulbs on his back, but Venusaur was apparently able to convince him to get sunlight from more areas. Heracross also sparred a lot with a blue frog that stood on two legs, with a red claw in the middle of each hand. Ash learned it was called Toxicroak and was from Sinnoh when he asked Janine.

On the fourth day of the week until Ash's journey to Cinnabar began, Fuchsia City's Pokémart finally got its shipment of stones, and Ash was lucky enough to have gotten to the store before anyone else bought the Dusk Stone that he and Doublade were waiting for. Normally, a Pokémon should wait about a year between evolving to their middle stage evolution to using an artificial means of evolution, such as evolutionary stones. However, that idea usually involves a Pokémon in the wild that doesn't train their body as much as a captured one, and Doublade was training at a level that most middle stage evolutions couldn't even begin to think of. As soon as Ash showed Doublade the stone she rushed to it and less than a minute later Ash and his team were congratulating Aegislash on reaching her final evolution. For the rest of the week, Aegislash sparred with all of the team to get used to her new form and power, along with the unique ability of Aegislash; Stance Change, and teaching her Double Team. Typically Aegislash will keep their main body behind a shield, which sometimes has slight variations, but all of them have some form of three circles surrounding the center of the shield. However, when the Pokémon attack they pull themselves out from behind the shield and use their incredibly durable and strong cloth, to hold the shield as a human would. That kind of change in style, while instinctual to Aegislash now, is enough that she has to completely relearn how to fight efficiently again. Something that she surprisingly threw herself into with all of her ability. Ash also switched Infernape for Snorlax since he was a little too heavy for the ship to safely travel if he was released.

The trip to Cinnabar was scheduled to take roughly a month, with a stop at the Seafoam Islands roughly halfway through the voyage. Most of Ash's team became very jealous of Butterfree and Charizard during the next week and a half. While they were all forced to train very lightly so they didn't rock the ship, Charizard and Butterfree were able to fly far enough away to really let loose and came back every few hours completely exhausted. One night, about two weeks into the voyage, Ash was having trouble getting to sleep and thought a small snack would be able to help. On his way to the kitchen, however, he saw a few ships approaching the ship silently and watched curiously as multiple people rush on board. Deciding that it would be best to be extra cautious he hid and called the direct line that he got for being an honorary Ace Trainer.

"Ketchum?" the older man said. "Why are you calling?"

"I'm on a ship to the Seafoam Islands from Fuchsia and multiple boats just came and boarded." Ash said quickly, "I can't say for certain if it is them, but I'm fairly certain it's Team Rocket. I didn't get a good look, but I have a feeling about it." Ash could hear the man typing on a computer through the phone.

"I can't mobilize the entire force for a hunch," he said, "But, for a ship take over? I can get at least twenty Ace Trainers ready and on the ship within a minute. Take cover and hi-." the man was cut off by static coming from the phone.

Ash didn't need to think before he released Aegislash and Greninja. With it being multiple hours after sunset, it was dark enough for Greninja to be able to slip in and out of the darkness easily enough, and Aegislash could hide extremely easily, being a Ghost-type. All of a sudden Ash hears someone walking to where he is hiding.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Ash heard someone say before he turned around. "I don't think we were properly introduced last time. My name is Petrel, Executive of Team Rocket and in a few minutes, I'll be the one who orders your execution!" The man said with a deranged smile. "You stopping us from getting what we wanted from the old man at Silph really screwed us over. Nothing personal, we just can't let a runt like you live after interfering with our business."

Ash didn't wait any longer to act. "Water Pulse! Shadow Ball!" he shouted and instantly his two released Pokémon seemed to blur into sight before launching their attacks and, using the smoke created from the attacks as a cover, managed to escape. Minutes later, as Ash was slowly moving through ship the PA system came to life and Ash stopped for a moment to listen.

"Attention passengers!" Ash heard Petrel say with a weirdly happy tone. "There is currently a passenger on this ship by the name of Ash Ketchum. He is currently our only target. But if we see anyone helping him, or not cooperating with us, well, I can't exactly say they would make it out of here alive now could I?" Petrel laughed loudly, "If anyone sees a young trainer with black hair, light skin, and wearing an Indigo League cap, bring him to the main deck immediately or you'll be fed to our more ravenous Pokémon."

Ash felt a cold chill go down his spine. That was something Ash would never wish on even his worst enemy. He decided to make extra certain no one saw anyone with that description and took off his cap. After all, if no one sees anyone matching the description Petrel would have no reason to follow through on his threat right? Suddenly, a hand covered his mouth and pulled him into a room. Not prepared in the slightest for the rough handling, Ash started struggling to get out of the hold he was in and escape from the person holding him.

"Calm down." A voice said, "We were able to get all of the civilians out of here. Unfortunately, we only have about half of our team here, we teleported in groups and they were able to get up some kind of barrier to cut off the signal the League gave the ship. Cruise ships are usually given a beacon of Psychic-type energy so that we can respond to any distress signals, but they figured out how to block this one. We're lucky you saw them board and called when you did, we would have had a bad situation if you hadn't." The information helped Ash calm down, and the middle-aged woman who was covering his mouth let him go. When Ash turned around he saw that there were about fifteen people in the room. "The plan is to split up and have one team go to the bridge to see if Petrel is there, while the other searches the ship for the Psychic-type making the barrier and take it out."

"Which team am I on?" Ash asked, "I was able to beat Sabrina in a five-on-five and Greninja and Aegislash could stick to the shadows if needed."

"You will be on the team searching the ship." She responded after a minute of thinking. "The two teams will rendezvous the main deck in fifty minutes."

The teams were split up and Ash followed his group in searching the lower levels of the ship for the Pokémon responsible for the barriers. They also knocked out any Rockets that they came across with one of the Ace's Gengar hypnotizing them so they wouldn't be able to wake up until the Hypnosis was lifted. Finding the Kadabra that was holding the barrier up was a lot harder than knocking it out. Since it was unable to psychically sense Greninja approaching it, one Night Slash was more than enough to knock it out. One of the Ace Trainers immediately released a large black Pokémon with a head larger than its body, two short arm-like appendages and eight eyes around its head. The Claydol instantly teleported away. Less than a minute later Claydol teleported back with another fourteen Ace Trainers. The new group was informed of the current plan and everyone made their way to the rendezvous point, getting there with only a few minutes to spare.

After waiting for five minutes an older Ace Trainer swore and told the group that they would be going to the bridge to find the other Aces. As the group snuck through the ship making their way to the bridge, Ash noticed a few areas that looked like a battle may have taken place but nothing that could show which side was winning. The Ace leading the group released a Pokémon with green hair and arms, and a white face and body that almost looked like a dress with legs that were barely visible, he called it Gardevoir. As the group approached the bridge they found it completely deserted and the leader told everyone to stay back while he investigates the room.

Barely a minute later, Ash hears him yell; "Take cover!" before a massive explosion envelops the room and is barely held back by the Gardevoir that teleported back to the hallway with its trainer. The Gardevoir started using Heal Pulse on the unlucky few that were injured from the shrapnel of the explosion as soon as the explosion died down. Thankfully the Heal Pulse only needed a few seconds to work, because the group found themselves surrounded by Pokémon, with a Weavile appearing behind the Gardevoir and knocking it out with a Metal Claw.

"So," Petrel says to the group, "What will you do now? The other group wouldn't tell us what we wanted to know, but we have them knocked out and ready to go back to base. Their Pokémon will be very useful for Team Rocket. Unless you want the same thing to happen to you. You will tell us where Ash Ketchum is." Ash is very thankful he was stationed in the middle of the group all of a sudden, and the fact he took off his cap once Petrel gave his demands earlier. As Petrel begins making his way toward the group however, Aegislash and Greninja rush out of the shadows to attack the surrounding group. The Ace Trainers are fast enough to release their own Pokémon in the confusion knocking out the Rocket's Pokémon and hold them down. One of the Aces ask Petrel where the other Ace trainers and their Pokémon are being held. But his response doesn't give Ash much hope.

"Ha! What makes you think anything you do could make me talk? You aren't exactly -Mean-and-Scary."

"Kid," one of the younger Ace Trainers said to him, "Why don't you step outside. You might not want to watch this." As he walks away, he hears one of the Aces release a Mr. Mime and doesn't hear anything else after. Ash thinks it might be a good idea to not look back. Ten minutes later, they have the locations and hear they have to separate again.

"They are being held in six different locations in the ship. Knowing Team Rocket, if we don't split up, as soon as we hit one the rest will know and be able to make their escape." The trainer with the Mr. Mime said.

"Alright." The group leader said. "We have thirty people in this room, and we need to split into 6 teams." He told the rest of the group that had spread out throughout the room slightly. He split the groups up and told everyone to rendezvous back at the entrance point in twenty minutes.

As Ash's group got to the room that held three Aces, they found out that the Rockets discovered that their Kadabra holding the barrier up was taken down and had a Starmie ready to teleport their group back to Rocket HQ. Ash's group leader didn't give any orders, she just burst into the room releasing a Ghost-type that looked like it was wearing a witch's hat that had a body shaped weirdly like a dress with long arms and no hands. Ash didn't pay much attention to it before ordering Greninja and Aegislash to take out the Starmie with Dark Pulse and Shadow Ball. The unfortunate Starmie was instantly knocked out when two massive Shadow Balls and an equally massive Dark Pulse slammed into it, instantly knocking it out and throwing it into the wall. The Rockets gave up very quickly after that.

This time when Ash's group made it back to the rendezvous point, there wasn't any complication and the Team Rocket members were taken into custody. Ash was also brought back to the League HQ to give his report while a different group of Ace Trainers was sent back to the ship with the crew to continue their voyage to Cinnabar. The rest of the civilians, however, were allowed a free teleportation to anywhere in Kanto as compensation for their troubles. Ash was very glad that giving his report was just him retelling his experience without having to write anything because at the moment his fatigue was catching up extremely quickly. After giving his team to a resident Nurse Joy, he made his way to a small room that the League provided for Ace Trainers needing to stay at HQ temporarily and immediately fell asleep for almost fourteen hours.

When Ash woke up the following day, he found that his Pokémon had been returned to him and that it was well after lunch-time when he woke up. After eating and feeding his Pokémon, Ash restocked his supplies and used the offer of free teleportation that his supervisor gave to get to Cinnabar easily. He also thought about the advice his supervisor gave him about asking for a Super Rod at Cinnabar's fishing shop.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Deciding to let his mom know that he made it to Cinnabar safely, Ash had a fairly long conversation catching up, telling her about Battle Bond and how his other Pokémon were getting insanely powerful to keep up with Greninja, and that he had to force them to relax most days. She was excited about Ash's Pokémon growing so strong, happy that Ash was not pushing them too far. Professor Oak got a more in depth story of his trip since hiding anything from an Elite Four, even a retired one, is impossible if they want to know, and since Professor Oak is so respected by every trainer he very likely would find out very quickly. Ash also decided to send over Sceptile and Butterfree while getting Snorlax back, as they wouldn't have a very good time fighting in a Fire-type gym. He also planned on finding a shop that would let him rent a Super Rod for a few days. Usually the League sets up a shop on coast towns or islands, like Cinnabar, that would let trainers buy a different level of fishing rod depending on the number of badges they had. A trainer with less than three would only be able to buy a weaker fishing rod, usually referred to as an "Old Rod" because they were usually older models that would only be able to hold weaker Pokémon like Magikarp, Tentacool or weak Staryu before breaking the line. The next was for trainers with three, four, or five badges, a Good Rod that was strong enough to hold slightly stronger Pokémon on the line, but still broke if the Pokémon was really strong. A Super Rod, however, is only given to trainers with six or more badges and is rumored to have never had a line break, despite catching Pokémon like Gyarados and Dragonair. While Ash wasn't opposed to one of those, he really just wanted a Pokémon that wanted to get stronger. He was hopeful that the Pokémon would be strong enough to join in the team and not take too long to catch up, power-wise, but he was also willing to train anything that he did catch.

Renting a room at the Pokémon Center for two weeks was simple, and finding the fishing shop wasn't any harder. The Super Rod put a sizable dent in his savings, but apparently he got payment from the League that covered the cost and a little more. Ash decided the best idea was to probably fly a decent distance away from Cinnabar before trying to fish, since any Pokémon that had to be that close to civilization probably would be exceptionally weak, compared to his team at least. Thankfully, Charizard practiced his stamina while flying as much as his power so Ash didn't have to worry about him exhausting himself by flying in place for a few hours. Unfortunately, Ash wasn't able to catch anything the first day, but after a few hours the second day Ash fished up a Seadra who looked quite angry at Ash for a moment, before Ash released Greninja who immediately began to talk to the Seadra about possibly joining the team.

After a moment of silence, Seadra responds and Charizard flew higher up. Seadra suddenly launched a Hydro Pump at Greninja who stopped it with his own Hydro Pump, blowing Seadra's apart and pushing Seadra back a few feet. Seadra looks back at Greninja with a gleam in its eyes before glowing with Bug-type energy and launching a Signal Beam at Greninja. Greninja waited until the attack was right in front of him and countered with a Dark Pulse, blowing it apart the same way as the Hydro Pumps and pushing Seadra even further back.

"Did Seadra say Greninja had to show it why it should join us, Charizard?" Ash asked and got a nod in response. When the Seadra resurfaced almost thirty seconds later it looked at Greninja and nodding enthusiastically before Greninja looked up at Charizard and called them both down.

"So," Ash said to the Seadra, "you'll come with us?" It nodded back. Catching the Seadra was pretty uneventful for all of the waiting Ash did, but he was just happy that he didn't reel in something that was temperamental, or too prideful to work with him. Ash had Charizard fly them back to Cinnabar before scanning Seadra with the Pokédex and seeing what moves it knew. He returned the Super Rod as soon as he landed, not wanting to forget about it after officially meeting Seadra and introducing it to the rest of the team.

Seadra was strong. Ash knew that when he saw her Hydro Pump. What he wasn't expecting, however, was her knowing Aurora Beam, a weak version of Ice Beam that focused more on pooling the energy of the attack into a wider range than Ice Beam. She also knew Dragon Pulse, one of the hardest Dragon-type moves for Seadra to learn, and Ash also saw her use Signal Beam against Greninja earlier. Just because Greninja was able to out power her attacks, did not mean she was weak by any means.

Later that day, Ash released Seadra in the Pokémon Center, thankful that Seadra's were able to float above water for short periods before they evolved into Kingdra. He talked with her about possibly evolving into a Kingdra since he has the funds to buy a Dragon Scale. Seadra looked at him in shock for a moment before nodding.

Evolving into a Kingdra is something most wild Seadra never truly aim for. Just like other pseudo-Dragon-types, Seadra are prideful and refuse to ask for help most of the time, even if they really need it. Combined with the fact that to evolve into Kingdra, Seadra must be traded while in contact with a scale from a fully evolved Dragon-type Pokémon makes it impossible for a wild Seadra to naturally evolve. Like Alakazam, Gengar, and Machamp, Kingdra evolve by the strange electrical charge present in trading machines, large machines that use a precise electrical shock to a Pokéball's programming to reset the ID that the Pokéball is linked to, letting trainer's exchange Pokémon without breaking the original pokéball and needing a new one. Ever since the first Pokémon evolved from that charge, hundreds of Pokémon have been discovered to evolve when they come in contact with that same charge while in the stasis of a Pokéball. With a large percentage of them also needing to have a specific item attached to them in some way. There are quite a few "wild" Kingdra, but those are ones that were trained by someone and simply outlived them. The additional Dragon-type energy introduced during the evolution to Kingdra gave them a typical life expectancy of roughly four hundred years. So after they outlive their trainer, most simply return to the sea and trying to get a Kingdra to join your team is something so rare, it might as well have never happened.

Buying the Dragon Scale and attaching it to Seadra was done fairly quickly and he immediately called Professor Oak and asked if he would do a false trade for him, since Ash knows he has a trading machine at the lab. False trades were something that a trainer figured out how to do about forty years ago, by using a trading machine with setting both trainers as the same one, the electrical charge still affects the Pokémon, without the risk of someone running off with your Pokémon after the trade. Professor Oak agreed easily after Ash explained the situation with Seadra and less than five minutes later Kingdra was floating next to Ash, as proud as she could be about how the day turned out.

The following week is fairly easy for Ash and the team. Meaning they all pushed themselves to their limit every day, while also helping Kingdra adjust to the dynamic and telling her the reason why they were all pushing themselves so far. Needless to say after seeing Greninja transform for the first time, she was all for pushing herself just as hard. She also learned Ice Beam, and helped Charizard and Sceptile perfect Dragon Pulses of their own. Since Kingdra is his only true Dragon-type, she would instinctively be able to know if they were wasting power with the attack and how to correct any slight problems they had in their usage of the move.

Unsurprisingly, Kingdra was able to catch up to the rest of the team very quickly in terms of power. She was a very powerful Seadra after all. After almost two weeks on Cinnabar Island, Ash decided that with Greninja, Kingdra, Charizard, Infernape, and Snorlax he should be able to fight Blaine without much trouble. After asking around for a bit, he found out the gym was at the base of Cinnabar's volcano. Finding it after that was very easy, thankfully. The gym is surprisingly empty, but an old man with a long white mustache wearing jeans, a shirt and tie under a lab coat, walked into the lobby as Ash is looking around and introduces himself.

"Hello young man. My name is Blaine." The man said happily. "Are you here to challenge the gym?"

"Yea," Ash responded. "And to talk to you about Battle Bond. My Greninja activated it a little more than a month ago and I wanted to talk with someone who had experience with it."

Blaine's eyes lit up when Ash talked about Battle Bond. "Ah! So you must be Ash Ketchum! Sabrina and Sam told me you would be making your way over. Sadly we can't have a Battle Bond battle, but Flareon should be able to watch our battle and give your Greninja advice. He's just too old to get in a battle anymore." Blaine got sad for a moment after that before brightening again. "But it will be amazing to see such a normally strong Pokémon get the increase in power of Battle Bond."

'Who was Sam?' Ash thought, 'Professor Oak maybe? His full name is Samuel Oak, so probably.'

After that, he gave Ash the form to challenge the gym and called for his Flareon to join them at the battlefield. When the Eevee evolution walked into the battlefield, he immediately noticed that Flareon was definitely showing his age. The small tuft of fur on his head was drooped down on the back of his head, instead of waving through the air like a flame. His tail, which naturally perks up to look like a fire while a Flareon is in its prime, is laid almost flat against his back.

Blaine noticed Ash's examination and said, "He's getting up there in age. It's one of the burdens of Battle Bond, we've found. Typically Flareon only live to around fifty years old with restoration machines now, but he's a full sixty-two. We aren't sure if our life expectancies were averaged, or if his was just pushed to match mine. Ah, but that's just the scientist in me trying to figure everything out." Blaine grinned. "But let's get ready for our battle. Since you were able to beat Sabrina in a five-on-five, you also got rid of your handicap matches now. So, how about a five-on-five battle with yours truly?"

"Sounds great." Ash said with his own grin. Blaine's enthusiasm was infectious. Blaine called a referee over to officiate the match.

"The gym battle between Cinnabar Leader Blaine Katsura and Challenger, Ash Ketchum, will be a five-on-five battle. Neither trainer may make a substitution, and the winner will be decided when either trainer has no more Pokémon able to battle. Are both trainers ready?" A nod from Ash and a large grin from Blaine was his only response. "Begin!"

Ash released Charizard while Blaine released a large Magmar.

"Begin!"

"Magmar! Teleport and Thunder Punch!"

"Counter it Charizard!" Ash said, thankful that Charizard focused on remembering Thunder Punch after all this time. The two attacks met and Charizard was able to overpower Magmar's Thunder Punch with his own, absorbing the Electric-type energy before dispelling the attack and spinning quickly to slam his tail into Magmar, throwing it away.

"Impressive," Blaine said, "Most people don't try that kind of counter since it requires your move to be stronger than the opponent's. Magmar! Double Chop!" Magmar instantly created four clones with Double Team before their arms glowed with Dragon-type energy and they all rushed Charizard from a different angle.

"Sun Thrower, Charizard." Charizard roared before flying up and launching a Sunny Day at the ceiling to light up the arena. When the Magmars reached where Charizard was, he used a Solar Powered Flamethrower, bathing them in flames.

"Mega Punch!" Blaine yelled. Suddenly, Magmar Teleported above Charizard with his fist glowing a pure white. Charizard didn't hesitate before flipping around and avoiding Magmar's fist, throwing it back to the field immediately afterward. Ash watched as Charizard closed his eyes for a moment before snapping them open as his entire tail became covered in his flame. Ash also noticed that Charizard's eyes were glowing a bright red, and worried Charizard was trying to use Blast Burn. He didn't know if Charizard was actually strong enough to use the move safely. Before Ash could think any further Charizard, Charizard spreads his wings out as far as he could to absorb more Solar Power before belching out a flame so hot and intense they turned almost entirely blue before covering Magmar in the attack.

When the smoke finally clears, Ash can see Charizard panting heavily for a moment before standing proud as if the last battle never happened. Magmar however was laid out on the ground, unconscious with soot covering its body.

"Magmar is unable to battle, Charizard wins."

Blaine recalled Magmar with a shocked look on his face that slowly morphed into a large grin. "It's been a while since I've fought a Charizard that could use so much power without an issue. And one able to use Blast Burn to that extent is definitely uncommon. Let's see how it fairs against my own." He said before releasing a Charizard slightly larger than Ash's, but with many small scars littering its body.

"Begin!"

Blaine started giving orders quickly this time, "Avoid a special attacking war, Charizard. It has Solar Power and has been trained extensively with it. Get in close, Mega Punch."

"Slam Charizard, if you get a shot use Dragon Pulse." Ash said

The two pseudo-dragons roared at each other before rushing toward each other. Ash's Charizard barely avoided the Mega Punch and was able to throw the other into the air by using Slam like Sceptile, by throwing all of his strength into his tail, and using his weight for extra power. Seeing his opportunity, Ash's Charizard pours all of his remaining energy into a Dragon Pulse to defeat his opponent. Blaine's Charizard had enough experience to charge its own Dragon Pulse. The two Dragon Pulses launched and the explosion of energy mere feet from the Pokémon blew them back to opposite sides of the battlefield, both of them unconscious.

"Both Charizard are unable to battle! Trainers, release your next Pokémon."

"Hahaha!" Blaine burst out laughing while the Flareon next to him just huffed and continued watching the field. "That Charizard is very strong. My Charizard might be getting old too, but he is definitely still in his prime. Magmar is no slouch either."

"I meant to ask," Ash asked, "How come you have a Magmar on your team rather than a Magmortar?"

"Well, that's because Magmar is a physical attacker. He prefers to get up close and personal to dish out hits in a fist-fight. Magmortar on the other hand…" Blaine tosses a pokéball into the air and releases a six foot tall Magmortar that was hot enough for the flames on its shoulders to have a bit of blue at the tips. The Magmortar aimed its cannons into the air before releasing a massive Flamethrower above its head. "… Is much more built for special attacking." The Magmortar cut its Flamethrower and aimed its cannons at Ash along with a grin that matched its trainers.

Ash didn't say anything but released Infernape who very happily matched Magmortar's grin.

"Begin!"

"Magmortar, Psychic."

"Shadow Claw!" Ash yelled, thankful that Heracross and Infernape practiced the move so much.

"Thunderbolt!" Magmortar roared and aimed both cannons at Infernape, both of them charged with Electric-type energy.

"Dig." Infernape instantly poured the required Ground-type energy into his hands for the move and dove into the earth like a human would in a pool.

Blaine cackled, "Earthquake!"

Ash's eyes widened as Magmortar lifted its leg and just like Heracross stomped with its foot covered in the same Ground-type energy. The field shattered. It completely broke apart, with parts of it jutting up into the air and throwing Infernape into the air. Magmortar laughed and let the Electric-type attack loose. Infernape was hit by the Thunderbolt and thrown to the other side of the battlefield before flipping around and landing on his feet.

"Infernape! Mach Punch! Get it off balance and then Close Combat."

"Focus Blast. Dual shot." Was Blaine's response. Magmortar aimed it cannons at Infernape before a soft glow of Fighting-type energy which grew into large spheres as Infernape got closer. Half of a second later, Infernape's Mach Punch hit Magmortar in the face before he slipped into a series of high powered punches and kicks, and a few swipes of his tail. Magmortar tried to swing one of its arms at Infernape to throw him off before throwing the Focus Blasts. Infernape quickly charged his own Focus Blast to stop the two coming at him. The explosion was enough to throw Infernape back and push Magmortar several feet. Ash looked at Infernape for a second and, on seeing him panting, wondered why he hadn't activated Blaze yet.

"Infernape." Ash said, "Give it all you have, if you hold back we won't win." Infernape looked at Ash for a second before nodding and roaring as he flame on his head tripled in size and wrapped around to cover his body. "Alright, Mach Flare!" Ash said. Mach Punch combined with Flare Blitz so that the speed attack would get a boost from Blaze.

Before anyone could react, Infernape appeared in front of Magmortar and punched it in the face with a fist glowing with both Fire- and Fighting-type energy, before covering Magmortar's body in heavy blows covered in flames. Magmortar, in one of the few moments it was able to defend itself, covered its cannons in Fighting-type energy and smacked Infernape away with a Brick Break. Infernape took a second to get back up before rushing at Magmortar and landing another devastating series of blows before it could react. After one particularly vicious blow that threw Magmortar across the field, Infernape's Blaze deactivated and he crouched onto one knee, exhausted from the endeavor. All of a sudden, Infernape clutched his head and yelled in pain before passing out, with Magmortar walking out of the cloud of dust and debris looking just as exhausted as Infernape had been but still able to continue fighting.

"Infernape is unable to battle, Magmortar wins!"

"Sorry for the deception, Ash. Magmortar just couldn't keep up with Infernape anymore so as soon as its guard was down, he had to use Psychic to put just enough extra pressure to knock him out." Blaine said.

"I figured something like that happened." Ash said, "After you gave your first order as Psychic and then didn't use it again even though there were opportunities to do so. But let's see how you handle Greninja." Said Pokémon was released that instant and ready to fight.

"Begin!"

"Surf!" Greninja immediately thrust his arms out and filled the area with a giant wave of water.

"Overheat! Then Teleport and Thunderbolt!" Magmortar suddenly glowed a dark blue and shot out a flame that completely evaporated Greninja's Surf, before teleporting behind Greninja and charging another Thunderbolt in both of its cannons. Greninja suddenly turned around with a Water Pulse in his hands before launching it at Magmortar's face, cutting off the Thunderbolt, before shooting a Dark Pulse at it and knocking Magmortar out.

"Magmortar is unable to battle, Greninja wins!"

Blaine recalled Magmortar, "So that's the one with Battle Bond." Flareon perked up a little at that, watching Greninja more intensely. "I won't let up on you for a second." He then released a Flareon that looked slightly larger than the one at his feet, but much younger. "This is Flareon's kit, Booster. He may not have Battle Bond, but he is still stronger than the average Flareon. Don't underestimate him."

"Begin!"

"Booster, Quick Charge. Then Super Slam." The Flareon covered itself in Normal-type energy and dashing forward before being covered in flames and getting faster after every step.

"Water Shuriken." Greninja might not practice the move as much as he should, but his speed wouldn't make you think that. He instantly formed three shuriken made out of water in his hands and threw them at Flareon, who dodged them all before tensing up and using Body Slam on Greninja and turning around kicking Greninja with powerful legs and sending Greninja flying over a huge boulder from Magmortar's Earthquake. An instant later Greninja flew out of Flareon's shadow and turned around to hit him away with a Night Slash.

'Did Aegislash show Greninja how to use Shadow Sneak?' Ash thought. 'I haven't seen him use that in training before.'

After flying through the air for a few feet, Booster twisted and used Quick Attack to fly toward the ground, then turned around to Body Slam Greninja again. Greninja was able to react fast enough this time and used Hydro Pump to deter the Flareon from getting closer. After a few Hydro Pumps, Greninja glowed white and once again transformed into his Battle Bond form.

"So that's what your form looks like?" Blaine asked, "I'm sure Sam told you, but each form is unique to the trainer and Pokémon. Flareon here actually had his fluffy tail condense into a fairly thin coarse wire and lost the small tuft on his head. Booster, Quick Tail. You need to keep your speed high or Greninja will blow you away." The Flareon looked annoyed for a second but if that was from being told it wasn't strong enough to out power Greninja or because Greninja is as strong as he is, Ash couldn't tell.

"Surf, keep it wide." Ash said, "If it gets close, Waterfall." Greninja nodded before making a very wide wave and throwing it in Booster's general direction. The Flareon coated itself in fire and used Flare Blitz to push through the Surf before rushing around with Quick Attack while its tail shined full of Steel-type energy. Flareon watched the whole battle with acute attention, apparently trying to pick apart every bit of the battle. Booster meanwhile kept trying to get close to Greninja but never able to with Greninja constantly covered in Water-type energy and moving as fast as he could.

"We can't outlast it Booster, Battle Bond makes him too strong. We have to end it in one hit. Giga Impact!" Blaine said.

Ash was surprised. Giga Impact was a final move, even more than Blast Burn is. It collects all of the user's energy into a massively overcharged Tackle, but it took quite a while to recharge after using the move. The Giga Impact pushed through Greninja's Waterfall and threw Greninja across the battlefield. Booster immediately fell over and passed out, but Greninja was able to eventually get back up after he stopped rolling from the attack.

"Flareon is unable to battle, Greninja wins! Sorry, but you know I can't use nicknames during the official part." The referee said when Flareon barked a little unhappy at Blaine's feet. He grumbled a bit before Blaine laughed as he sent out his last Pokémon, Arcanine.

"Begin!"

Arcanine started the match with an Extreme Speed. Greninja waited until the last moment before firing a Water Pulse and pushing Arcanine back. Arcanine uses Extreme Speed again but before Greninja can use Water Pulse again, he shrouds himself with Electric-type energy and tackles Greninja, transferring the energy. Greninja tries to move right away but the Wild Charge is still affecting him. Arcanine sees this and is able to rush him from behind and opens its mouth for a Thunder Fang.

"Greninja, Surf!" Greninja is still recovering, but pushes his hands down and makes a giant wave to wash the entire field to push Arcanine away. Greninja turns and is about to fire a Hydro Pump but Arcanine slips into Extreme Speed again and knocks Greninja off balance before he can. It followed that with a Fire Blast at point blank range, knocking Greninja out of his Battle Bond form and hitting him with another Extreme Speed to knock him out completely.

"Greninja is unable to battle, Arcanine wins!"

"You've trained your Greninja well, Ash," Blaine says, "Arcanine trained extremely hard to be the fastest of his kind, and for your Greninja to be able to respond to his Extreme Speed as he did is impressive. But let's what else you have now!" Ash sends out Kingdra who looks a little annoyed at not being able to show off its power as much against a tired opponent.

"Begin!"

"Kingdra, Surf. It's fast. We need to slow it down to hit it." Kingdra glowed blue in response and launched a wide wave of Water-type energy, covering the entire field before launching a more focused Hydro Pump which Arcanine was able to dodge. The second Hydro Pump was too fast for Arcanine however, and he was knocked out by the attack before he hit the ground.

"Arcanine is unable to battle, Kingdra is the winner! Gym Leader Blaine has no more usable Pokémon, challenger Ash is the winner!"

Ash grinned, 'just one more and we'll be qualified for the Conference! And we still have three months until then.'

Blaine walked over and laughed before handing Ash the badge. "That was one of the best matches I've had all season, most people either aren't quite up to par yet or just fight with Water and Ground-types. Look, even Flareon thinks so!" Ash looked at the Flareon who walked up with Blaine who nodded at him before scratching at Blaine's feet and yawning. Blaine chuckled before recalling Flareon. "He doesn't like to walk around if he doesn't have to so sometimes he'll ask to get recalled. Don't misunderstand me when I say this, but I really hate seeing him like this." Blaine lost his smile for a bit as he said that. "As much as I love Battle Bond for letting Flareon get as strong as he did, it's cruel that he can't access the power anymore now that he is old. Take my advice, don't get old. It's not fun." Blaine smiled at the end, but it was definitely sad.

"You said that Booster didn't have Battle Bond but was stronger than a normal Flareon? Does that mean Battle Bond isn't a genetic ability?" Ash said to change the topic slightly.

Blaine seemed to appreciate that, "From what we've studied, Battle Bond doesn't follow any genetic pattern. It's honestly created when a strong bond is formed between a strong Pokémon and a strong human, almost always their trainer. So far, the only thing we have been able to discover is that in order to have the potential for Battle Bond is that the Pokémon cannot be born with an ability, which is fairly uncommon nowadays." Blaine sighs, "It's honestly a shame but I think that Battle Bond will always be a unique ability between Pokémon with nothing to really connect them. There are hundreds of Pokémon that have never shown signs of having an ability that train with strong trainers. And yet there have still only been ten cases of a Pokémon awakening Battle Bond in my life time. Although, the last decade has had most of those cases. Maybe after a few more decades it'll be more common?"

Ash decided to spend another few days in Cinnabar to pick Blaine's brain about Battle Bond and get a few training tips for Charizard and Infernape. Flareon also seemed more than happy to talk to Greninja about Battle Bond. Thankfully, he could afford to slack off for a while since the winnings for beating your seventh gym was almost $75,000 and it more than allowed him to miss out on the once a month ferry to Pallet Town, since the teleportation service was only about $2,000. Blaine didn't actually have any tips that he could give Ash for training for his Fire-types, he only told Ash to keep up what he is doing as that is already more than enough for some of his Pokémon. Blaine did warn him that Giovanni will be the toughest of all of the Gym Leaders, as the man would have become an Elite Four member, if he didn't step down by his own decision and allow Koga to take the spot instead, so Ash decided to spend the next month or so training to better prepare for Giovanni's team.

Once Ash got back to Pallet, he decided to visit his mother first, then head to Professor Oak's lab after lunch. His mom was ecstatic to see him again and asked why Ash was home already since the last time they talked he still had to beat Viridian's Gym Leader. After explaining why he wants to wait she agrees that it was probably the best idea at the moment. Ash enjoyed the lunch with his mom before going to Professor Oak's lab and telling the last of his team about his current plan. Unfortunately, Dragonite and Dratini had just left for a long training trip, according to Professor Oak, so he and his team weren't able to catch up with the little Dragon-type. They were all extremely happy about being able to all spend a month training together, though. His plan is to train them all in their speed and overall power for now, letting his Pokémon increase their baselines in preparation for Giovanni. After talking with Professor Oak about Charizard using Blast Burn without any bad consequences during his battle with Blaine, he tells Ash that so long as he is careful and trains his Pokémon very carefully, he should be able to teach them Giga Impact and its special attacking counterpart, Hyper Beam. He tells Ash that he should teach Infernape, Sceptile, and Greninja their full power moves; Blast Burn, Frenzy Plant, and Hydro Cannon respectively.

Throughout the month Greninja is actually able to learn the attack fairly quickly but the other two have a few problems with the attacks. Butterfree is also able to learn Hyper Beam and can even overpower Greninja's Hydro Cannon with it surprisingly, but after Greninja transforms Butterfree needs to hold as much energy from Quiver Dance as he can to keep overpowering it. Greninja doesn't have to worry about a cool down for the attack in his Battle Bond form, which is a new development with Battle Bond because the others still have to stay still for a few seconds after to recover. Professor Oak theorized it might have something to do with being able to actually learn Hydro Cannon.

About three weeks after Ash got to Pallet, Professor Sycamore visits Professor Oak to discuss a new mega stone that reacts to Charizards but they haven't found a Charizard that is able to transform with it, despite there being hundreds of extremely strong Charizard in the world, and even quite a few that are able to transform using the first mega stone as well.

"What's a mega stone?" Ash asks

"Ah! Ash!" Professor Sycamore, a young man in his early twenties that was already able to get recognized as a regional professor says, "I was hoping to meet with you and ask how you liked training Froakie, but after seeing your training this morning, I think I can say you two took to each other very well. Anyway, a mega stone is something that is used for Mega Evolution. Mega Evolution is a temporary transformation, quite like Battle Bond, but the Pokémon is able to have an ability, to access the form. It requires two stones, one that the trainer holds and one that the Pokémon holds, a Key Stone and the Mega Stone. For some reason we have found hundreds of the first stone, but mega stones themselves are very rare and there are only about thirty different kinds. We found out recently that mega evolution doesn't actually require a Key Stone, but without one and a strong bond between the two stone wearers, the evolution is extremely painful for the Pokémon. We decided to name this transformation after evolution since it gives the Pokémon as much of a boost as if they evolved, Mega Charizard, for example, are able to out-power Hydreigon that are on a complete rampage."

"Woah," Ash said, distracted by the possibilities of any of his Pokémon gaining that kind of a pure boost in power. "You said Charizard has a Mega Stone?"

"Yes," Sycamore said, happy that he can talk about his passion, "The typical Charizardite pulls out a Charizard's Dragon-type energy and they become Fire/Dragon-types that gain immense physical strength. This one looks entirely different, and yet reacts the same way around different Charizard."

Hearing that, Ash deflated a little bit. "That's too bad. My Charizard has always focused on special attacks, and if his physical strength is the thing getting boosted then my Charizard would have to relearn how to fight entirely. It wouldn't be worth it."

Sycamore stays silent for a moment before talking. "I think you may have just solved our problem, Ash."

"Huh? What do you mean, Professor?" Ash asked, confused on how he could have helped them with anything. He trains for battles, he doesn't study.

"We've been trying to find Charizard who've almost all focused on their physical strength, as if this is the same Charizardite, but it isn't! We should try and focus on finding a Charizard who focuses on special attacking that would be ready for Mega Evolution." Professor Sycamore shakes Ash in excitement before rushing off to find a video phone.

"Is he always like that?" Ash asks Professor Oak, who is just laughing quietly in a corner.

"Oh, no. No he is normally much more reserved." Professor Oak tells him, "But you may have just given him a new thesis to Mega Evolution. I think he may just rush back to Kalos now to report his idea and if he can find a Charizard to Mega Evolve with the new stone, I would put money on him getting a Key Stone for you at some point." Ash blinked a few times trying to wrap his mind around the idea of a comment on how he trained his Charizard wound up with him possibly getting such an important item.

Professor Sycamore did rush back to Kalos later that day, and Professor Oak had a good laugh at the man's actions. Back with his team's training, once Infernape learned Blast Burn and Sceptile learned Frenzy Plant, which was actually a much different move than any other Grass-type attack, Ash decided that he would decide which of his team would fight Giovanni. Watching Sceptile thrust his glowing hands into the ground before calling up roots easily forty feet long and at least as thick as Charizard's body that would absolutely demolish any Pokémon that the roots came into contact with, as he sparred with Butterfree who was expertly dodging the massive roots as if the entire battle was choreographed made Ash chuckle. Butterfree had been pushing himself harder than the rest of his team, almost to his own detriment, but the rewards were showing themselves. After discussing with his team, he decided to bring Sceptile, Butterfree, Kingdra, Greninja, Snorlax, and Heracross for the Viridian Gym Battle.

Ash got to Viridian by getting Charizard to fly him to Viridian. After swapping Charizard for Snorlax, Ash went straight to the Viridian Gym for his battle. Meeting Giovanni was… different. He wasn't rude, but he was cold and didn't seem to care much about being at the gym right then. And his black suit and pants didn't detract from the image any.

"Our match will be three-on-three. I honestly don't have the time today to do any longer of a match." Giovanni told him.

"Alright, that's fine with me." Ash responded.

The referee walked into his box and began the match.

Giovanni released a Nidoqueen before he even began talking however, and Ash responded by sending out Butterfree.

"Begin!"

Nidoqueen immediately formed rocks around herself and launched them all at Butterfree who avoided them all with Quiver Dance before launching an Air Slash back, cutting one of the rocks in half. Nidoqueen reacted with an Ice Beam to break the Air Slash, but Butterfree was able to stop the Ice-type attack with an Energy Ball. In the smoke of the attack, Butterfree's eyes glowed with Psychic-type energy before Nidoqueen roared in pain and used Shadow Ball through the smoke to try and hit Butterfree. Butterfree did have to stop using Psychic, but a Signal Beam stopped the attack quickly.

At this point Giovanni gave his first order. "Thunder." Ash was surprised with how fast the cloud formed on the ceiling before a huge bolt of lightning came down, barely missing Butterfree, before he launched another Air Slash. Nidoqueen tried to block but after the Air Slash cut her arms deeply and threw her at least twenty feet backwards, she was unconscious. Giovanni returned Nidoqueen and released a very large Rhyperior without a word.

"Begin!"

Rhyperior moved its arms so that the holes in its hands are pointed at Butterfree and starts firing a lot of small rocks. Butterfree is able to avoid most of them, but a few clip his wings before focusing, using Psychic to distract Rhyperior and fight its mind. While he is doing that, he also flies to Rhyperior, completely ignoring the roars of pain and rage and uses Giga Drain up close, draining Rhyperior's energy and knocking it out after almost a minute of draining its energy.

"Rhyperior is unable to battle, Butterfree wins!" the referee was looking at Butterfree like it was Mew itself. A Butterfree able to take down a Nidoqueen is strong, but a Butterfree able to take down a Rhyperior in a few moves, a Pokémon that is almost guaranteed to be trained well and is naturally powerful itself? That is _unique_, something that he most likely hadn't heard of before, that's for sure. Ash just grinned, happy that all of his training with Butterfree was able to keep him up to par with his other Pokémon.

Giovanni narrows his eyes and sends out a Gliscor. Ash looked at Butterfree and notices that despite the Rhyperior's siphoned energy, Butterfree is losing the glow of Quiver Dance and is panting heavily. He doesn't let the referee begin the match and forfeits Butterfree, he is just too tired after pushing so much energy through his body to continue the fight. If Ash had to guess, Butterfree would be very hard pressed to ever be one of his Pokémon with great stamina. The fact he was able to throw around so much power was already unheard of for a Butterfree, having the stamina to fight for hours just wasn't possible for the butterfly. Ash decides to let Kingdra have a battle against a Gym Leader and releases her.

"Begin!"

Gliscor begins with slamming his tail into the ground and causing a very powerful Earthquake that knocks Kingdra slightly off balance. But not enough that she can't attack and use Hydro Pump to push the Gliscor back. Kingdra focuses and shoots a powerful Ice Beam at Gliscor, pushing it backwards and knocking it out

"Gliscor is unable to continue, Gym Leader Giovanni is unable to continue, Challenger Ash Ketchum wins!"

Giovanni quickly leaves and the referee walks up to me, "Sorry about that, when he gets busy with something he really doesn't like battling getting in the way, but the fact you were able to handle his Pokémon so well does speak highly of your team, especially your Butterfree. Here is the Earth Badge, and the TM for High Horsepower, it is similar to the Fighting-type move Superpower, but doesn't overwork the users body as much. It also uses Ground-type energy instead of Fighting-type."

Ash just grins and decides to walk home, after thanking the referee. He's one step closer to his goal. He has all eight badges from the Kanto gym circuit and is eligible for the Indigo Conference that starts in just under two months!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Ash decides to teach Snorlax High Horsepower, so he has another Ground-type attack along with Earthquake. After giving it some thought, Ash also decides to spend the next two months pushing his team's strength and speed while they wait for the conference to begin. But he doesn't want to run into anyone returning to Professor Oak's lab and see his training so travels to the mountains about a day's walk from Pallet, for some seclusion. About three weeks into his training however, a Pidgeot delivers a letter to him that includes an invitation to a small tournament, to prepare people for the Indigo conference, which will take place in a little under a week. He actually talks to Professor Oak about it before deciding to accept or not.

"Oh I wouldn't worry too much about that Ash." Professor Oak tells him, "Typically, some philanthropist will hear of an up-and-coming trainer or two and invite them to a tournament shortly before a Conference to see how strong they are and get a leg up on bets around the trainer."

"So it's not a bad idea to go?" Ash asked, "I wouldn't mind entering a small tournament before the conference."

"By all means, go ahead." Professor Oak laughs for a moment. "Some of the most fun my team and I had were in tournaments like that, where there wasn't any reward except bragging rights, and they were small enough to only last a few days."

After that small conversation, Ash decides to bring Greninja, Charizard, Snorlax, Heracross, Infernape and Sceptile with him to the tournament and switch out any of the ones who exhaust themselves in a battle. Searching the island that the tournament is scheduled to be on, Ash sees that it's accessible by a ferry that goes between the island and a nearby town. Seeing no need for spending extra time walking, Ash cut his travel time in half by having Charizard fly him to the town, which only takes him a day thanks to Charizard's speed. Waiting for the week to end, Ash got worried about getting to the island because of the massive storm coming to the area, and switches Snorlax with Kingdra in case something happens to stop them from letting the ferry cross to the island. Unsurprisingly to Ash, the town called the ferry in and wouldn't let it carry anyone across for the tournament because the storm was getting so bad. When he found out, he released Kingdra and rented some scuba gear to go under the waves, so Kingdra could just take him to the island without having to find a safe spot to surface so he could breathe. Ash actually meets a trainer a few years older than him who introduces herself as Neesha and is almost entirely set up with her own set of scuba gear.

"I'm Ash." He told her, "Are you here for the tournament too?"

"Yea!" She says excitedly. "I've been training a small team of Pokémon for the past few years before I actually decided to try for the Conference and I guess someone heard about it. Are you?"

"Yea." Ash tells her, less excited but still with a smile. "It's the first tournament I've entered in, but my team was really excited about it when I told them, there was no way I could tell them no."

"I know the feeling. When I told my Ninetales and Rapidash about it they tried to race each other here." She said with a laugh. Ash liked her, most trainers he met looked down on him because of being a rookie, but she treated him like a legitimate trainer and it was refreshing. "I'm going to be riding my Dewgong to the island, I assume you're going to do something similar?"

"My Kingdra." Ash told her. "I got here a few days ago and switched her back to my team once the storm started getting bad."

She looked really surprised. "A Kingdra? Wow that's rare. How long have you had her?"

"A couple of months now. She was a really strong Seadra when I caught her so I asked her if she wanted to evolve, it would cost me most of the money I had saved up 'til then, but once I beat Blaine I was alright."

She looks a little shocked still but was able to talk after a moment. "S-so you have a pretty strong team? Did you have any trouble in the Circuit?"

"Well," Ash started, "I'm a rookie so Brock, Misty, Erika, and Janine had to use their weaker teams against me. Sabrina was really the only one who gave me a bit of trouble, but I was able to beat her on my second try."

"Well then, I'm impressed!" She said with a bit of astonishment. "I expected you to be a strong rookie from being invited to the tourney here, but I had to try a few times against a few of the gyms before I got their badges. I can't wait to battle you and see how strong you are." After that they both released their Pokémon and let them know exactly what the plan is.

Kingdra and her Dewgong actually hit it off pretty well and were fast friends. Neesha was able to get Dewgong to talk to Kingdra about staying in sight of the other as an extra precaution in case something in the water attacks them.

Jumping into the pitch black water is not something Ash wants to really do ever again. As soon as he jumped in, he couldn't even see the hand holding onto Kingdra as he adjusted to keep a strong grip on her. The feeling of moving without seeing anything around him was very disorienting, but he trusted Kingdra to be able to get him safely to the island. The few Kingdra that have actually allowed themselves to be studied have all shown that they can see clearly no matter how deep they go in the ocean, even the seafloor in the deepest parts of the world. Thankfully, they reached the island without any actual problems and see an absolutely massive mansion that easily covers a million square feet if he is guessing correctly. It's easily five times larger than Professor Oak's lab. Deciding not to stay outside in the pouring rain, they find the front door and once they get inside they are met by a woman dressed in faded brown robes.

"Hello," she says to them, "May I see your invitations?" After showing both of their invitations the woman told them where their rooms were. "We will also be having a meet and greet with the organizer of the tournament in a few hours. He asks that anyone who wishes to actually participate in the tournament meet in the dining hall attached to the foyer." She bows and thanks them for attending before walking away. They decide to change and hopefully shower before meeting up in the foyer in an hour. After a refreshing shower and changing back into his usual travelling clothes he heads down to the foyer a few minutes early and sees Neesha already waiting there, wearing long pants, and a sleeveless shirt with a pokéball hanging on a necklace. Combined with her shoulder length brown hair she actually looks more mature now.

When she sees him she smiles and they walk into the dining hall to see multiple fountains for Water-type Pokémon to be able to make themselves comfortable and about seven or eight other trainers waiting around. Apparently two of Neesha's friends are there too, Fergus a trainer who focuses on training Water-types sitting with a Seadra, Gyarados, Golduck, Vaporeon, Tentacruel and an out of place Nidoqueen. He's wearing a blue tank top with swimming shorts and fingerless gloves similar to Ash's, but black and red instead of green. Her other friend, Corey, is surrounded by a Venusaur, Pidgeot, Hitmonlee, Scyther, Sandslash and a strong looking Rhyhorn that is probably only a few days from evolving. He's wearing a typical Ace Trainer jacket and jogging pants.

"Neesha!" Fergus said, "We were starting to wonder if you were going to make it. And who's this?" he says as he notices Ash walking with her.

"Well, I had to stop by a shop for scuba gear in town cause Shellshocker and Dewgong aren't exactly the safest Pokémon to ride huge waves with, so we had to go underwater for the whole trip. And this is Ash Ketchum, he's a rookie but apparently really strong. And get this! He has a Kingdra!" she tells them.

"Really?" Fergus said suddenly looking at Ash with a little more interest. "We'll have to sit down and talk about training. My Seadra's strong but he's having some issues actually pulling out Dragon-type energy right now, and I want him to have a good grasp of it before I let him evolve." The Seadra looks at them and nods, apparently agreeing that he doesn't want to take any shortcuts to get strong.

"Yea, I've trained a few Pokémon able to use Dragon-energy before, but when I caught Seadra she was already a seriously strong Pokémon and she was already ready to evolve." Ash told him.

"Perfect!" Fergus said. "Most of Seadra's problems come from trying to draw up Dragon-type energy. A small talk with some of your Pokémon may be just what he needs."

"What other Pokémon do you have Ash?" Corey asks. Ash just released his team as an answer, and Greninja, Sceptile, and Charizard immediately start trying to find a way to continue the competition they've had going the past few days to see who is the strongest, fastest, and overall most powerful Pokémon on the team.

Ash sighs. "Can you three calm down for five minutes?" he asks not really expecting an answer. He turns to the others who are eyeing his team with a bit of respect as they are clearly strong Pokémon. "They've been trying to find anything to compete against the others for the past few days. I had to stop them from trying to prove who could fly the highest with Greninja and Sceptile using Acrobatics, who could break a rock into the most pieces, even who could eat their food the fastest and get back to training. It's completely new and I have no idea why they are suddenly so focused on being better than the other two." Ash watches as Infernape and Heracross laugh like crazy at the three while Kingdra huffs and turns away. The other humans in the group are trying not to laugh and succeed, until Corey whispers something to Fergus and they all crack up. "Do you know why they are acting like this? Because I can't figure it out. At first I thought it was just a competition that dragons do every now and then, but then Greninja joined in and I don't know why he would."

After they finish chuckling Neesha says, "Oh don't worry about it Ash, it's nothing really bad and they'll get it out of their system soon. Or your Kingdra will knock it out of them." Fergus cracks up again at that last sentence. Ash still doesn't quite understand, but decides to listen to Neesha and not worry about it for now. Suddenly a strange looking Pokémon walks into the room alongside the woman who met them at the door earlier. The strange Pokémon looks almost like a feline Pokémon but stands on two legs, is as tall as Surge, and has a strangely bent column connecting the back of its head to the top of its spine.

**"Hello trainers. I am the one who organized this tournament for you all."** Ash hears in his head. And his eyes widen while Fergus chokes on his spit. Telepathy like this was only possible between exceptionally gifted psychic humans. Although there are reports of trainers meeting a legendary Pokémon such as one of the Legendary Beasts in Johto and communicating with them using telepathy. **"You are indeed correct Ash Ketchum. I am capable of telepathy between humans like the Beasts. You are all wondering how this is possible, or why I am going through the trouble of creating such a tournament. In order for you to understand my answer, I must tell you of my creation. I am a genetically altered clone of Mew, named Mewtwo. A group of scientists were able to get their hands on a workable DNA sample and after making various clones of other Pokémon successfully, they were able to successfully create me. However, they did not want to just create another Pokémon of Creation, they wanted a Pokémon of Destruction and altered small parts of the sample, creating me in the process. I still retain most of the powers of Mew, but only the ones capable of causing great harm. While I was being held on the island, I came to understand all of my gifts including the telepathy and slight mind reading that I have shown already tonight. Through that knowledge, I began to search the minds of my creators and learned a horrible truth. They were all extremely determined to brainwash me into becoming the walking Destruction they had envisioned. I was prepared to destroy the lab and be done with all humans. However, during one of the times I was searching the memories of those people, I came across one that had me question if you were all worth the destruction, if humans were not entirely evil as I was beginning to believe. I saw a small group of Pokémon following a human, and they all showed affection toward each other in a way that I could understand, and yet not. I felt as if that was how I had hoped humans were, and yet I couldn't understand why any Pokémon would willingly follow a human. So, after I escaped from the facility that was holding me, I fled here and after I gained a better grasp of my abilities, I created this mansion. My goal with this tournament, is to see why Pokémon love humans as they do, and why humans reciprocate the feeling."**

The entire group is dumbfounded at Mewtwo. Ash decides to focus one thing at a time and is the first to speak after Mewtwo's speech.

"Do you know what the name of the group that created you was? Maybe how they got their funding to do their experiments?"

**"The group merely called themselves the Next Generation. All that I do know is that the group itself was funded by Team Rocket."** Mewtwo told them. Ash felt a cold chill go down his spine. If Team Rocket was able to get control of a brainwashed Pokémon with the power of a Legendary, no one could stop them.

"Maybe you can get a good idea of why Pokémon would join humans if you talk to some of my Pokémon." Ash said. "Sceptile, Charizard and Infernape were all abandoned when they were young, but they all joined me on my journey and they're some of my closest friends now." Mewtwo looked at him for a moment before nodding and moving over to Sceptile, having a short conversation with him before doing the same with Charizard and Infernape.

**"You are indeed a unique individual Ash Ketchum. During my escape, I was able to do a short mental scan of many people on my way to this island. Many of them had similar scenarios as the ones you have come across, but very few have done as you in them."**

Ash blushes slightly. "It's just the way I am. If I see someone needing help, I'll do what I can to help them."

**"May I communicate with the rest of the Pokémon here?"** Mewtwo asks the other trainers who allow him to do so, and he had short individual talks with all of the Pokémon there.** "Strange. When you caught these Pokémon, their lives were completely upended. Some had families, some were alone. Some were content, some were not, yet they all were able to find purpose with you."** After thinking for a moment Mewtwo begins again, **"I wish to challenge you. If you can defeat me, perhaps I, too, can find a purpose. It would also allow me to understand exactly how the bond between a Pokémon and human can form."**

For a moment no one moves before Greninja steps forward and looks at Ash. He grins back at Greninja and says, "If that is the case Mewtwo, then Greninja and I accept your challenge." Ash hears Mewtwo hum in amusement at his tone before nodding and leading them all to a large battlefield and taking his position on the other side of it.

**"So, you are the one with the unique 'Battle Bond' that your teammates feel so grateful and proud about? I feel… Excited. Is that a normal thing to feel for a battle between two powerful Pokémon?"** Mewtwo asks and Greninja nods at Mewtwo before getting in a position, ready to dart away at a moment's notice. One of the trainers Ash wasn't able to get the name of says "Begin!" and Greninja speeds toward Mewtwo immediately, blurring into a streak of blue. Mewtwo's eyes glow the bright pink of Psychic before Greninja uses Night Slash bending Mewtwo over his extended arm before charging a Dark Pulse with his other arm and using it to launch Mewtwo backward. Mewtwo narrows its eyes before beginning to glow with Fighting-type energy and forming a ball in his hands. Greninja begins charging energy for Acrobatics and uses it to avoid the Aura Sphere that Mewtwo launches a second later.

"Gunk Shot, Greninja!" Ash says, seeing a possible opening. After avoiding the Aura Sphere and seeing it redirect to Greninja, he could maneuver himself to get Mewtwo between the attack and himself. But he has to be doing something when he does that or Mewtwo will see through it. Greninja spins, collecting a large amount of poison on the end of his tongue before throwing it at Mewtwo and gets behind it as Mewtwo creates a Barrier to block the attack. Greninja fires another Dark Pulse pushing Mewtwo into the Aura Sphere's path, but Mewtwo grabs the sphere and crushes the energy inside of it.

At this point, some of the Pokémon are astounded by the speed and power that is being thrown casually about in this battle, while their trainers are also looking surprised at the two Pokémon going back and forth at the level they are. Mewtwo roars out and a cloud forms in the sky, but Greninja jumps into the shadows around the battlefield as the attack finally forms and the whole field is filled with a bright flash of light and the smell of ozone filled Ash's nose before he could finally open his eyes again. As soon as Ash could see again, he sees Greninja jump out of Mewtwo's shadow before hitting him with both the Ghost-type energy of Shadow Sneak and another Night Slash. Mewtwo is thrown across the field again, and stumbles as he tries to stand up, before Greninja transforms and fires a hugely overpowered Hydro Pump. Ash takes a second to realize Greninja is using the opportunity to compete with Charizard and Sceptile, again. Ash just covers his eyes for a second while he gets his blush under control. There was an appropriate time for showboating, and this was not it. When Mewtwo is finally able to get back up after the Hydro Pump, he concedes and asks Ash to capture him.

"Are you sure? I already have six so if I catch you, you'll be transported to Professor Oak. On top of the fact that you are, pretty much, a Legendary" Ash tells him.

**"Yes. After my performance, I clearly need the experience to be able to match the power I have now. I believe you have the capability to help me gain that."** Mewtwo tells him.

Ash opens his bag and looks for something more than pokéball because there is no way a Legendary, which Mewtwo is regardless of experience, will be held by such a common device. He blinks and pulls out a Great Ball, apparently Ash had grabbed one at Cinnabar in case he caught something too strong for a normal pokéball to hold.

"I don't remember getting this, but apparently I did at some point. Knowing my team Sceptile probably grabbed it at some point without me knowing. Get ready Mewtwo, teleporting outside of your own power might be a little strange." Ash said and then poked the Legendary with the Great Ball. Ash watched it shake for a second before giving the usual ding of capture before transporting to Professor Oak's lab.

Ash stands up and at that point remembers there are others here before turning to them and feeling a little sheepish at the looks of outright shock and disbelief on some of their faces. "So, uh, do you guys still think we should have the tournament?" he asks and they all shake their heads before Fergus says something to Neesha and she blushes before glaring at him.

"Hey Ash," one of them asks, "How long have you been a trainer?"

"About seven months. This is my first year as a trainer, Greninja was my starter." He tells them and feels a little amused at the shocked looks they are giving him. Fergus pipes up at this point, "Oh yea, you are definitely gonna help me with Seadra." Which breaks the tension and causes a few genuine laughs throughout the group.

"Yea, we'll do something tomorrow." Ash said, "For now I think I should call Professor Oak so he doesn't freak out when he scans the pokéball and sees what it is." Everyone agrees that they should probably make some calls themselves. When Ash finally does call Professor Oak he wasn't expecting how manic the old man would sound.

"What in the world did you catch? Where did you catch it? Why is there absolutely no data in the entire league database about this Pokémon? Why, when I scan it, does it say that there are traces of MEW?!" he rambled clearly freaked out. Ash decided to have some fun with the poor man to try and get a laugh out of him.

"I caught a Mewtwo. I caught it at the tournament. There isn't any data because it was created in a lab. And scans probably say there are traces of Mew because it is a genetically altered clone of Mew." Ash said trying to keep his voice completely serious.

Professor Oak was silent for almost a full minute before sighing and saying, "Just… Get back to Pallet within the next week, please? I would like to do everything to get… Mewtwo set up and registered as a Pokémon in the database."

"Sure, Professor. Honestly no one wanted to continue the tournament after they saw Greninja and Mewtwo fight so I'll probably leave once the storm clears out." After saying goodbye, Professor Oak hung up and Ash chuckled at his freaking out, although it was an understandable thing to freak out about. It's not every day you catch a never before seen Pokémon after all.

Later that night as the group of trainers are eating some of the food that was left in the mansion, everyone wants to know how Ash will train Mewtwo since it is so powerful.

"Well," Ash thinks for a moment. "I'll probably hook him up to a few Power Lenses so he can get used to more efficiently using his power. And while he does that, I'll have him spar some of my Pokémon, Sceptile and Charizard are able to keep up with Greninja most of the time, and I've got a Butterfree that likes to give them a run for their money as well. Infernape and Heracross are definitely strong, but they don't quite train to the same levels as the others do. Kingdra, Snorlax and Aegislash are strong as well, but they don't enjoy battling for the sake of battling as much as the others. Well… Kingdra might, but she can't keep up with the older members of my team yet."

"You know," Corey says, "Your team is really a pack of monsters, Charizard, Greninja, Infernape, Heracross, Snorlax, Kingdra, but then you have a Butterfree that completely throws off the vibes of your team of rare and naturally strong Pokémon. I know you said Sceptile, Charizard and Infernape weren't originally your Pokémon, but were any of the others someone else's first too?"

"No, Butterfree was my first catch as a little Caterpie in Viridian Forest. Heracross I found in the safari zone, Snorlax was in the middle of the path to Lavender Town, Aegislash was a little Honedge in the Pokémon Tower that wouldn't feed on anyone's life force and nearly died before I found her, and Kingdra was a strong Seadra that I fished up outside of Cinnabar Island." Ash told them

"Woah," Fergus chimed in, "A Ghost-type that wouldn't eat any life force? Did something happen to her?"

"Not that I know of." Ash said, "From what I can tell she just refused to take anyone's life force and if it wasn't for the restoration machines in Pokémon Centers, she wouldn't have made it."

"Wow that's rough," Neesha said, "But with a line up like that, I can't imagine your Pokémon not catching up to Mewtwo's strength. We'll have to battle sometime after the conference so I can see how I stack up." Fergus coughed and Neesha glared at him making him and Corey start laughing. Neesha ignores them and asks if she and Ash can exchange numbers and he agrees. With Corey and Fergus laughing up a storm bigger than the one on the island, Ash starts to think that maybe the two are looking too far into things for a laugh. He ends up getting their numbers too so that they can arrange some meet ups, or battles too.

All of the trainers split up to their rooms for the night and by the next morning the storm was mostly cleared up, but still too harsh for them to go back to town safely. Seeing that now was a good time to help Fergus' Seadra, Ash had Kingdra, Sceptile and Charizard spend the morning after breakfast helping him. By lunch the storm had mostly cleared, and everyone decided to make their way back to their homes for some more training before getting to the conference.

After saying goodbye to his new friends, Ash has Charizard fly him back to the town to return the scuba gear, before flying back to Pallet. Getting back to Pallet Town was a bit of a hassle, as there were multiple reporters around the town and a few trying to get into Professor Oak's lab. Ash waved at Dragonite and Dratini on his way in, happy that they were back from whatever secret trip Dragonite took Dratini on. After glaring at the reporters one more time, Dragonite flew up to Charizard and flew with us back to the lab.

Dratini actually rushed off of Dragonite's shoulders and rushed up to Ash, excited to see him again.

"Hi girl," Ash said, kneeling down and rubbing her head. "How are you doing? Are you happy here?" Dratini trilled happily and bumped his hand slightly. "That's good. How is your training with Dragonite going?" Dragonite chuffed and gave Ash a thumbs-up making him laugh. Dratini actually used a weak Water Gun, Ember and Thundershock to show that she was learning how to use other elemental attacks as well. "Oh yea, Dragon-types are able to remember more types than other Pokémon." He had completely forgotten about that little fact. Dragons almost never forget a move after they learn it, usually they only forget how to regulate the correct amount of power for the move they want to use. Ash looked up when he heard Professor Oak approaching them and ask Dragonite how their trip went.

"Hello, Ash." The Professor said tiredly, "The next time you find an undiscovered Pokémon, may I ask you to catch it in the morning? Filling out all of the forms and getting the necessary data has been a very tiring twelve hours."

Ash chuckled sheepishly, "Sorry Professor, I really didn't think about what time it was when I battled Mewtwo. I should probably ask if he wants to be referred to as something else."

"I actually had that conversation with him myself, which very much surprised me when he first spoke, mind you. He said that despite the name being given to him by evil men, they were still his creators, and as such, had the right to name him. He just wishes they were a little more creative." Professor Oak told him.

As they walk into the lab, Ash sees Mewtwo and Alakazam both meditating next to each other with their eyes glowing with Psychic-type power, and floating a foot or so off the ground.

"That is how experienced Psychic-types share experience with others. Typically, Kadabra and Alakazam do this with their young Abra in the few hours a day that they are awake. Alakazam hoped that having a bit more experience would help Mewtwo learn how to use its power more effectively."

"Oh that's a good idea. I was going to put a Power Lens or two on Mewtwo and then spar with my other Pokémon." Ash said.

"Hmm. That will definitely bring out his full potential strength, but I don't think that will show the best efficiency with that power. Oh!" Professor Oak exclaimed. "I almost forgot, from the tests that Mewtwo allowed me to run, apparently he is male. According to the legends Mew was the first Pokémon to reproduce, so it was able to have both male and female productive parts. But, according to what Mewtwo told me earlier, Ditto were originally an attempt at a Mew clone, but it used too much of Mew's DNA and was unable to hold itself in a form capable of holding power. And let me tell you, finding out how that mysterious Pokémon came to be was an amazing moment. Anyway, the group was able to figure out why Ditto failed to house its own power, unless it transforms, and only chose a single DNA strand as their sample. The strand they used apparently was a part of Mew that held purely male attributes, so Mewtwo is a male. You don't have to keep referring to him as 'it'."

"Oh, OK." Ash said before another part of the information hit him. "Wait, so Ditto is also a clone of Mew? But there are hundreds of them now."

"That's because for a while they were able to mate with themselves for reproduction. A few years ago they suddenly weren't able to do so anymore." Professor Oak said, smoothly moving into a lecture like tone. "However, we noticed that they only breed into females. No matter what Pokémon they are transforming into, they are always in the female variant of the Pokémon. A few species have actually been saved from extinction because of that, like Lapras and Relicanth. For some reason the male ditto only survived for a few years, three years and two months at most, before they died, but the females are still going strong, with some of the older ones on record being at least thirty years old!"

"So, from what anyone has been able to determine, is that the ditto are entirely female, but effectively immortal?" Ash asked, quite confused by the concept. Sure there are some Pokémon that live longer depending on their gender, but to live ten times longer was very odd.

"Not quite immortal, but definitely a long living species. Ah, forgive me Ash." Professor Oak said, embarrassed over his lecture. "I don't often get to share my knowledge with anyone outside of a research paper. It's quite refreshing, but I tend to get carried away."

"Don't worry about it Professor," Ash told him. "It was interesting to learn about." Ash stopped for a moment as he realized something. "Professor… If Mewtwo is a male, and Ditto are able to always transform into a female of the species… Would they be able to mate with Mewtwo and actually make a species of them?"

"No, unfortunately. While Mewtwo's DNA is more stable, it is still slightly… frayed, I suppose is the best term. And Ditto can only transform into a Pokémon without genetic mutations, they are somehow able to scan a Pokémon's DNA from a short distance and they make their transformations from a normal strain of the DNA they scan. It's why they can't transform into a shiny variant, or one with King's Nature."

"King's Nature?" Ash asked trying to remember what that was. "That's when a Pokémon is naturally a little larger and stronger than others of their species right?"

"A slightly inadequate explanation for the genetic mutation, but yes." Professor Oak said, slightly amused. "As the name implies, there have only been accounts of males having the mutation and it is never directly passed down, but it normally doubles a Pokémon's size and lets them grow at a much faster rate than other Pokémon, I believe one of the other Regional Professors has a Pokémon with King's Nature but I do not recall the exact details of the case. But, if I am remembering the broader details correctly, they hatched the Pokémon from an egg and it was a fully evolved Pokémon in a little under two months."

"My Pokémon didn't take much longer than that to evolve, though. And none of them have King's Nature." Ash said.

"True, but I have given some thought on that. While your Pokémon did evolve faster than most, you also focused on training a small team, along with the fact you had Charizard to help Infernape and Charizard, and I'm sure your Butterfree talked to him a few times to on how to fly most efficiently. Not to mention that from what I have watched, you are a natural at seeing a weak point in a Pokémon, and how to correct it. Most trainers don't see what you saw on your first week of training until they are already months into their journey. I probably should have mentioned that when the egg hatched they were still a new trainer themselves, and that had you been raising it, the Pokémon probably would have barely taken a month."

Ash's eyes widened at that. Was he really that good of a trainer? Yea he was able to point out where one of his Pokémon made a mistake in their spars, but wasn't that something everyone was able to do after going to the League School?

"On the topic of skill." Professor Oak continued. "Are you planning on using Mewtwo in the conference?" he asked uncertainly.

"I wasn't planning on it." Ash told him. "It would be like using a Zapdos or something. Yea there is a whole species of them, but they're Legendary for a reason and that kind of power isn't very fair to use in a tournament like the conference. By the time I would feel comfortable using him in battle, we would be in the final few battles and he would steamroll the entire opponent. That's not very fair in all honesty, maybe if I was fighting a Champion-Level team I wouldn't be so against the idea. But against the other trainers in the conference that doesn't feel right."

Professor Oak sighed in relief, "Good. I was honestly worried you would decide to bring him into the tournament. Usually trainers are really looked down on if they just use a Pokémon with that kind of power during the tournament. Combine the fact that this is your first conference and Mewtwo has the destructive potential of Mew? You would be run out of the conference as soon as Mewtwo formed out of the Pokéball."

The remaining month of training actually helped his Pokémon more than he expected. After Mewtwo gained the faux experience from Alakazam, and worked with Power Lenses to lessen his power in spars, all of his Pokémon were able to push him, and he was also able to push them. He spent his whole time training at the more remote end of Professor Oak's lab so that Gary wouldn't stumble across his team training when he got back. At the end of the month none of his Pokémon could truly match Mewtwo in a battle of stamina, except for Greninja, but they were all able to match his power for a short spar. With three days left for the Conference, Ash had Charizard fly him through route 23, with Butterfree coming along for the flight to Indigo Stadium. As Ash landed at the stadium grounds, he noticed that there were easily hundreds of small homes that were uninhabited and assumed they were there for the people participating in the Conference and wondered which one he would get. After registering, he was given a small three bedroom home to use with a trainer from Lavender named Kel and one from Cinnabar named Hailey who were going to be sharing the small house with him for however long they were still in the Conference. Apparently, they couldn't have anyone from the same town share a home anymore because about eight years ago two of them got into a huge fight and blew up their entire block, and they can't let anyone not still in the Conference stay in the home because there have been multiple cases of someone losing interfering in some way to get one of the people sharing the home disqualified. But as Ash was setting up his room he decided that he should probably try and get to know them a bit, and maybe see if he could find Neesha, Corey or Fergus around and hang out with them for a little. It would be nice to see if Fergus' Seadra was able to hold Dragon-type energy any better now.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13.

As the Conference got closer, more and more trainers showed up and the entire housing area was filled with trainers by the day of the Conference. Unfortunately, Ash couldn't find any of his friends anywhere, although that might be because there were so many people. On the day of the Conference's opening the announcer told everyone how the preliminary rounds would be done.

"The first five rounds will be one-on-one battles, with each day having the participants using a different battlefield! The five different battlefields the trainers will have to use are; an open plain, a field of ice, a dense forest, a mountainous rocky area, and an underwater arena! Once we move to the starting brackets of the tournament, we will have an open battlefield with the trainers using three Pokémon per battle, with the quarter finalists using an entire team! The trainers were separated into different blocks to decide in what order they will use each battlefield!"

Ash was in block C, he would be in the plain, then ice field, then the underwater battlefield, then the rocky area and finally the forest. Ash wanted to use Charizard for the plains, Aegislash for the ice, and Kingdra for the underwater battles. But wasn't sure who to use between the last two fields. Infernape, Sceptile, Butterfree and Heracross were all good options for any of them, and deciding who to use was something he was still having problems with. Maybe waiting and seeing what Pokémon his opponent used would give him a slightly better idea on who was the better option.

The first battle Ash had was pretty underwhelming, he fought a trainer from Johto who used a Typhlosion to fight Charizard. But the Typhlosion just wasn't able to keep up with Charizard's power and got knocked out after Charizard completely consumed Typhlosion's attempt at a Fire Blast with his own. The next day was a bit more interesting when his opponent released a Cloyster as he sent out Aegislash.

"Begin!"

"Cloyster, Hydro Pump!" it wasn't quite as powerful as Greninja's, but the attack was about the size of Kingdra's so Ash was slightly concerned about this match going either way.

"King's Shield, don't take them lightly." Ash said as Cloyster's attack was halfway to Aegislash. Aegislash glowed with Steel-type energy before a semi-transparent copy of Aegislash's shield formed in front of her to stop the attack. "Flash Team." Aegislash moved her shield to one of her arms before holding it in front of her and charging the energy for Flash Cannon, then multiplying perfectly into about fifteen clones, all with their own Flash Cannons charged and waiting for release.

"Protect!" the other trainer yelled as Aegislash launched her attacks. Cloyster responded immediately by closing its shell and having a shield of Normal-type energy surround it on all sides, protecting it from the attacks.

"Iron Head and Sacred Sword, keep it up until they concede. King's Shield if you need to." After seeing how much time Cloyster needed to recover from the Hydro Pump Ash realized that the other trainer must have focused more on using their strongest moves fast, rather than being able to use the power consistently. So long as Aegislash kept pushing it, she should be able to win. Ash watched as Aegislash covered her shield with Steel-type energy while her other arm was cloaked with Fighting-type energy. She smacked and slashed Cloyster without stopping for almost three minutes without the Cloyster being able to get away and attack. After one harsh Iron Head that threw Cloyster across the field, its shell opened, revealing it was unconscious.

"Cloyster is unable to continue, the winner is Aegislash and Ash Ketchum of Pallet town!"

On his way back to the house, Ash found Gary waiting for him at the stadium's exit.

"Ash!" he said, "I almost thought you were avoiding me and gramps until I actually went out and tried to find you. This place is packed."

"Wait, Professor Oak is here too? And you're staying with him?" Ash asked.

"Yea. He has a small property here because of being a retired Elite Four member. Although, Agatha keeps trying to get gramps to battle her. Apparently she kept trying to take his position as the strongest Elite, but wasn't able to beat him before he retired."

"Woah, I didn't realize his team was that strong." Ash said. Yea, Dragonite and Charizard were monsters, and Pidgeot was apparently really strong, and Ash learned Alakazam was also part of his team, but Agatha was the obvious strongest Elite Four member of Kanto since before Ash could even remember. Either she really got stronger after Professor Oak retired, or he was just that strong.

"Yea. Apparently he also had a Gyarados and Dodrio that were some of his strongest, but after one of Dodrio's heads got a pretty bad injury, he retired almost as soon as he could. I don't blame him honestly. I couldn't imagine having a single team like that and then one of them having such a harsh injury." Ash winced and agreed. Each of Dodrio's heads were important for different bodily functions. If one of them is injured, they usually don't live for very long. Professor Oak probably had his team spend Dodrio's last few weeks together. It was easy to image he wouldn't have the heart to battle anymore. Ash couldn't begin to imagine how he would be able to battle if any of his team died.

"You're really luck you don't have to share a house with anyone out with the rest of us." Ash told him. "There are so many trainers going through the walkways out here that you can hardly move. Looking for someone is almost impossible here. So, what block are you in?"

"I'm in B. I've already won my battle for the day but I wasn't able to completely manhandle my opponents like you did." Gary said. "That Aegislash is a beast, but after seeing Charizard and knowing about your Grovyle, I'm not surprised you were able to find one. Gramps wouldn't tell me anything about it though."

Ash smiled as he thought of some of the training he has done with Aegislash and said, "Yea. When I found her she was almost dead honestly. She refused to eat anyone's life force and since no one had caught her she didn't have access to the Pokémon Center's restoration machines. Thankfully I found her in time and she's been one of my more skilled Pokémon after she got to a good level of power."

Gary whistled. "Wow, I'm surprised. Ghosts usually don't feel that strongly about people to not get any kind of food. My Mismagius definitely isn't like that. I actually found her when she tried to use some of my life force to heal herself after a battle."

The two of them started walking to Ash's house talking about some of the harder battles they had during their journey's and Ash learned that Gary actually almost missed the Conference, only getting his eighth badge about a week before it started. Apparently he used his Arcanine the first day and his Mismagius the second, and was able to beat his opponents, but not without taking a few heavy shots in the process.

On the third day of the preliminaries, Ash and Kingdra fought a pretty strong Seaking.

"Begin!"

"Seaking, Drill Run!" the other trainer said. Seaking lowered its horn before it glowed with Ground-type energy and rushed to Kingdra.

"Dragon Pulse. Push it away and let it tire out before you let it get close." Ash said, remembering how Seaking are typically more powerful with attacks involving their horn than actually special attacking.

The following few minutes were filled with Seaking's trainer trying to find a way to get close to Kingdra before noticing just how tired Seaking was getting.

"Dammit! Seaking! Give it everything you've got, Giga Impact!" the other trainer ordered, with a bit of panic after seeing Kingdra calmly keep Seaking away so easily.

"Kingdra, counter if you can. If not Hyper Beam." Kingdra took a moment to brace herself before watching Seaking charge at her carefully. As Seaking got close enough, she spun and twisted slightly before slamming the Seaking into the wall with one powerful hit. Kingdra then lifted her snout and began charging raw energy before firing a massive Hyper Beam at Seaking before it could recover, knocking it out instantly.

"Seaking is unable to battle! Kingdra and Ash Ketchum are the victors!"

His next battle was against someone who used a Tauros, Jynx, and then a Poliwrath in the previous battles so Ash felt a little safer going with Infernape in the mountain field. Unfortunately, as Ash released Infernape, his opponent decided to use a Flygon, apparently a Ground/Dragon type from Hoenn.

"Begin!"

"Flygon, Dragon Rush!" the other trainer said.

Ash's eyes widened. "Infernape, Dig! When you get out, hit it with Mach Combat!" Dragon Rush was one of the strongest Dragon-type moves in existence. The only two that were stronger, Draco Meteor and Outrage, had very annoying drawbacks that most trainers just don't like dealing with, so they settle with mastering Dragon Rush than the other attacks. Infernape dug underground quickly and Flygon crashed into the ground and Ash watched as the Dragon-type energy dissipated.

"Hahaha, wow. You really are a rookie, Flygon use Earthquake. Finish this up quickly." Ash rolled his eyes. Obviously the trainer was talking about Ash having Infernape using Dig against a Pokémon that could fly. As Flygon lifted its leg to pour its energy into the ground and use Earthquake, Infernape jumped out of the ground and blasted the Flygon away before rushing at it with Mach Punch and pummeling the Dragon-type. After getting hit with a few punches and kicks, the Flygon spun around and hit Infernape away with its tail covered in Dragon-type energy. As it finished its spin, the energy from the tail transferred to its mouth and Ash watched it fire a Dragon Pulse incredibly quickly.

"Fire Blast." Infernape would have to throw everything it could to overpower that with as little time to be able to charge up his attack. Surprisingly, Infernape was able to twist enough to face the attack head-on and let loose a very powerful Fire Blast. Ash was even more surprised when the Fire Blast blew the Dragon Pulse apart and that the Flygon was too surprised to avoid the attack and got a nasty burn on the front of its right wing.

"Lucky shot. Flygon, Earth Power!"

"Infernape, Mach Punch. Push it." Infernape was happy to interrupt Flygon as it tried to use the powerful Ground-type attack. Unfortunately Flygon twisted again and knocked Infernape high into the air with a Slam before charging a large ball of Dragon-type energy above its mouth and shooting it into the air. Realizing what it was, Ash decided to try something. The worst that could happen is something that would have happened anyway.

"Infernape! Hit it back with Iron Tail!" Infernape took a moment to recall exactly how to use Steel-type energy since Ash hadn't had him work with it quite as much as the others, but was able to use the attack well enough before turning so he would fall directly over the ascending ball of energy. Quickly spinning to add a bit more force to the attack, Infernape hit the attack with his tail, reversing its direction and watched as it landed on the exhausted Flygon before exploding and throwing the Pokémon across the battlefield with a trail of smoke.

"Flygon is unable to battle! The winners are Infernape and Ash of Pallet!" the referee said after almost ten second of the Flygon not moving after it landed.

Ash was incredibly proud of Infernape being able to pull off the impromptu counter, which of course made the ape Pokémon walk with a swagger for the rest of the day.

The only real issue Ash had with any of his battles was on the fifth day when Ash decided to let Butterfree fight in the forest and Sceptile and Heracross fight the following day since the three-on-three battles would begin. Ash released Butterfree, who was easily six feet tall at this point and surprising Ash with his size every time he actually payed attention to it now. It's not often that a Butterfree is as big as a Charizard, after all. At the same time, his opponent released a Scizor and laughed at Ash's choice in Pokémon.

"You brought a Butterfree? Wow I was actually looking forward to this match with some of the powerhouses you brought in the last few rounds, but now I almost feel insulted."

"Begin!"

"Scizor, Bullet Punch!"

"Avoid it Butterfree." Ash had stopped telling Butterfree when to use Quiver Dance. By this point, if Butterfree deemed its opponent strong enough, he would use it. While Butterfree did avoid the Bullet Punch, he didn't gain the glow of Bug-type energy that normally showed Quiver dace,one using the same movements to avoid the attack. He then turned, quickly shooting a Shadow Ball at the speeding Scizor, throwing it into a tree with a lot of force. Before anyone else could react, Butterfree used an Air Slash that was strong enough to actually cut Scizor deeply, despite its body being as hard as steel. Seeing the Scizor get up again and try to use an attack, Butterfree shot another Shadow Ball at it which blew up and actually threw it straight through a few trees.

"Scizor is unable to battle! Butterfree and Ash win!" The referee said, although he looked like he never expected to say that in his life. Ash grinned as Butterfree flew back to him and chattered proudly about his win. At least half of the stadium was too astonished to know how to react, while the others were cheering Ash's name, making said boy blush at the sudden realization that he was finally past the preliminary rounds and into the real Conference battles now.

Apparently, Ash has to fight three people to get to the quarter finals. Letting his team know that they had passed the preliminaries made all of his Pokémon heavily praise the ones who battled which had many of them quite bashful about the praise, while Charizard soaked it up with pride. Sceptile seemed to really want to prove his strength after that.

Ash's next opponent, Jeremy Sprites, was definitely a veteran trainer. The guy looked like he was in his early twenties, and according to his previous matches, his Pokémon weren't weak either. Ash decided to start with Sceptile, and his opponent started with a Feraligatr.

"Begin!"

"Dragon Dance, Feraligatr!"

"Stop it." Ash said, without saying anything else. Sceptile got the hint and rushed at his full speed, blurring until he was almost invisible before hitting the Feraligatr with a Slam and throwing an Energy Ball at it immediately after. The Feraligatr was caught completely off-guard when Sceptile suddenly appeared in front of it and used his tail to throw him across the battlefield. Seeing the Energy Ball homing in quickly, Feraligatr was able to move and break the attack apart with an Ice Punch before using Aqua Jet to rush back in at Sceptile.

"Dragon Claw to intercept it." Ash said, again getting an instantaneous reaction from Sceptile who caught the rushing Johto starter, despite being pushed a few feet backwards. Sceptile then spun his arms around to throw the Feraligatr off balance, before slashing with a Dragon-type energy fueled attack that hit the Feraligatr hard. "Giga Drain, Sceptile." Ash said. Sceptile quickly formed a small ball of Grass-type energy and carefully pushed it at Feraligatr before pulling his arms back once it made contact. Feraligatr was barely able to fight back before passing out.

"Feraligatr is unable to battle! Sceptile wins!"

Jeremy waited a moment to think on his next Pokémon, before releasing a strong looking Shiftry. Ash took the opportunity to thank whoever made the rules to allow trainers to use their Pokédex during Conferences.

"Begin!"

"Shiftry, Hurricane!" Shiftry pulled back his fan like hands and brought them together fast and picked up a huge wind.

"Sceptile, Rock Slide to cover yourself. Don't let the attack get you." Sceptile immediately coated his arms in Rock-type energy before making a large mound of boulders over top of himself. As soon as the winds of the attack died down, Sceptile rushed out of the tomb he had made and used the most powerful X-scissor he could. He followed by using Acrobatics and hitting Shiftry repeatedly with the Flying-type attack before it could even react.

"Sucker Punch!" Jeremy yelled, hoping to get a strong hit on Sceptile before Shiftry couldn't continue. Shiftry did end up hitting Sceptile, but not strong enough to stop Sceptile's last attack. Both of them tried to get up a few times, but after failing repeatedly the referee decided to call the match.

"Both Shiftry and Sceptile cannot continue! Trainers, send out your next Pokémon."

Ash had already decided on Heracross, and his opponent had chosen a Pinsir that they released at the same time. Ash chuckled at the coincidence, Pinsir and Heracross had become somewhat "rival" Pokémon of the same species to the point if a group of them found each other in the wild, they would have multiple competitions to beat the other.

"Begin!"

"Heracross, Rock Slide." Ash said quickly, hoping to take advantage of Heracross' natural instincts of competition to push him faster.

"Iron Defense, Pinsir." Pinsir yelled before its body gave off a shine from the Steel-type energy it was channeling.

"Shadow Claw, Heracross!"

"Throat Chop!" Ash had never heard of the move before, but was able to figure out it was a Dark-type move after seeing the energy form around its arms. The clash of the two attack was intense, with Pinsir's attack having the clear type advantage but Heracross able to push back through sheer strength. Heracross followed by raising his other arm like he was going to use Brick Break, but channeled Rock-type energy, before using it to smash Pinsir into the ground. Making it stumble around for a moment before Heracross finished with another Smack Down to its head.

"Pinsir is unable to battle! Jeremy is out of usable Pokémon so the winner is Heracross and Ash Ketchum!"

Listening to some of the news coverage of the Indigo Conference a few hours later was interesting, but a little embarrassing at the same time. They just kept going on and on about Ash still being a rookie and yet showing he has a right to be in Conference, especially after the power his Pokémon had shown in the first multi-Pokémon battle.

Gary scoffed as he walked in after hearing the news caster. "Of course you deserve your place there. I have yet to see anyone else who has trained their team as hard as you have. Yea, some of them have more experience and are just older, but you still have some of them beat."

"Thanks Gary. You still bummed about not making it past the prelims?" Ash asked, not really worried about offending him.

"Nah," he said, "I never really realized I didn't have a Pokémon ready for a forest environment. That Victreebel had a serious advantage against Mismagius there. So who are you using tomorrow?"

"I'm thinking of continuing to use Heracross and Sceptile to keep people guessing at the rest of my team. I already used half of my Pokémon during the preliminaries, so I might just use one of the others again if those two get taken out."

"If? I get you're confident, but you can't expect them to take out three Pokémon on their own each round." Gary said.

"Well yea. Obviously expecting that from them is unreasonable, especially because I don't know much about my opponents. I'm fairly certain they can handle most Pokémon after the training they've been going through, but I know there are some that will just too strong for them." Ash told him. Ash spent the rest of the day with Sceptile helping Butterfree learn Roost. Roost was similar enough to Synthesis for the Sceptile to have enough experience to help Butterfree.

The next day, Ash was fighting Jonathan Martin, a trainer from Johto who looked a couple of years older than Ash. Ash sent Heracross out first this time, and Jonathan released a Noctowl.

"Begin!"

"Noctowl, Air Slash." Jonathan said calmly.

"Rock Slide, protect yourself." Ash said with the same tone. Most of Ash's opponents were very excitable people, it would be interesting to fight someone who could keep their cool in battle. Heracross formed a large amount of rocks that were able to block the Air Slashes. After the final the attack was blocked by the rocks, Heracross enhanced himself with Fighting-type energy and rushed at Noctowl for a powerful Close Combat.

"Psychic, Noctowl." Ash cursed. Noctowl was immune to Ghost-type energy, so trying to stop Psychic with that move would be less than effective.

Ash decided to go with the next best thing. "Megahorn!" while not quite as effective as a Ghost- or Dark-type attack, Megahorn was still enough to disrupt the Psychic. The Megahorn/Close Combat combination was even too much for the Noctowl. After an additional Brick Break, the Noctowl laid unconscious on the ground.

"Noctowl is unable to battle, Heracross is the winner!"

Jonathan sent out a strong looking Yanmega, one of the Pokémon who require learning a specific move to evolve, rather than battle experience or age.

"Begin!"

"Yanmega, Bug Buzz." Yanmega's wings glowed with energy for a second before the attack created a strange distortion in the air with a noise buzzing from it as well. Heracross was visibly off-balance for a moment before he righted himself, charged a Stone Edge and threw the attack at Yanmega. The Yanmega, despite its large size, was able to avoid the attack easily. An Air Slash and Signal Beam were launched at Heracross, who was barely able to avoid the attacks. This back and forth happened for a few minutes with powerful attacks being used effortlessly by the two Pokémon, before Yanmega was clipped by a stone, and Heracross was hit by Signal Beam. Heracross was knocked back and after standing for another moment falls over unconscious, while Yanmega was still flying seemingly unaffected by the intense battle it just had.

"Heracross is unable to battle, Yanmega is the winner!"

Realizing that Sceptile would be at a very harsh disadvantage here, Ash decided to let Charizard make another appearance.

"Begin!"

"Charizard, Flame Burst. Rapid Fire." One of the things Ash had realized while training his Pokémon was that having them use weaker moves that took less time to charge let them fire full power attacks so fast and close to each other that they became almost impossible to avoid. Charizard had been practicing his Flame Bursts on Sceptile and Greninja, Yanmega stood no chance.

"Yanmega is unable to battle, Charizard wins!"

Jonathan recalled Yanmega and sent out an Ampharos without saying a word.

"Begin!"

The small ball on the end of Ampharos' tail and head glowed with Electric-type energy while Charizard charged up a Fire Blast. As Ampharos let loose a powerful Zap Cannon, Charizard overpowered it with Fire Blast before rushing in and hitting Ampharos with a Dragon Claw, then Slam, and finally another Fire Blast at point blank range. Ampharos didn't stand a chance after such a devastating combo.

"Ampharos is unable to battles! Jonathan is out of usable Pokémon, so the winners are Charizard and Ash!"

As Ash, Gary, and Professor Oak were talking about his performance in the Conference, they started talking about his next opponent. Ash was hopeful about his next match. According to his previous matches, Clay Simone, was about as strong as his last opponent. So far he had used a Sandslash, Machamp, Gyarados, Venusaur and Dewgong. All of them were decently strong, a little stronger than Ash's team was as they were training in Cinnabar, but after having them fight with Mewtwo as much as they had been, he wasn't worried about the match very much.

As Ash stood across from his opponent the following day, he was thinking of how he would react against the different Pokémon his opponent could release. He chose to start with Sceptile again today to make up for not letting him battle yesterday, while Clay decided to start with his Venusaur.

"Begin!"

"Venusaur, Sludge Bomb! Then Outrage." Clay yelled. Ash was surprised, Outrage was incredibly powerful for a Dragon-type attack. But because of how much energy is poured through the Pokémon using the attack, it leaves them with a massive feeling of weakness and a large headache.

"Acrobatics to avoid them. If you get a clear shot hit him, but otherwise keep your distance." Ash said after barely a moment of thought. Venusaur belched out a large ball of Poison-type energy that exploded near Sceptile before letting out at least twenty vines covered in Dragon-type energy. Sceptile was able to dodge most of the vines, but every time he had a clear shot to hit Venusaur, one of the vines would suddenly zero in on him and smack him away with a hard swipe. Throughout the next few minutes, the Venusaur would slowly lose strength and collapse, completely exhausted and nearly unconscious. Sceptile was trying to stand proudly, but Ash could see where the Outrage had done a lot of damage.

"Venusaur is unable to continue! Sceptile wins!"

Clay's next Pokémon was his Machamp, who cracked its knuckles as it stared Sceptile down.

"Begin!"

"Sceptile, Energy Ball. Keep your distance, make it move to you." Ash said.

"Bullet Punch, Machamp!" The four-armed Pokémon focused on Sceptile for a moment before its fists glowed with Steel-type energy and Machamp blurred forward.

"Sceptile, Leaf Blade!" Ash ordered quickly. Machamp are typically slow moving Pokémon, he was definitely not expecting one to be able to move so quickly. Sceptile was able get a swipe of his Leaf Blade to cut across Machamp's chest, but the four arms launching hundreds of Bullet Punches in the following second was enough to knock Sceptile out and across the battlefield.

"Sceptile is unable to battle, the winner is Machamp!"

Ash recalled Sceptile and released Heracross the next moment. If the Bug-type realized Ash didn't let him fight such a strong Fighting-type, Heracross would have a chip on his shoulder the rest of the tournament. 'Thank all of the gods that Infernape isn't that prideful.' Ash thought before he refocused on his match.

"Begin!"

"Fire Punch, Machamp. Get in close." Machamp's fists glowed with fire before he rushed at Heracross.

"Close Combat." Ash said, planning on Heracross avoiding the Fire Punch enough to not get too badly burned. After Heracross got a good few hits on Machamp and knocked the wind out of it with Megahorn, Heracross used his horn to throw Machamp away. Ash noticed that Heracross' left arm looked like it had a harsh burn on it and Ash suppressed a grin. With a burn like that Guts would be in full swing and Heracross would be able to use much more power behind his attacks. Heracross flew at Machamp with a Shadow Claw ready and slashed at Machamp's exposed gut, knocking it out as the pain grew too large.

"Machamp is unable to battle, Heracross is the winner!"

Clay decided to let out Gyarados and the nearly twenty-five foot long water serpent immediately roared angrily toward the sky.

"Begin!"

"Stone Edge, Gyarados!" Clay yelled, clearly hoping his Pokémon put enough power into the attack to finish Heracross.

"Counter it with your own Heracross!" Ash said. Unfortunately for Heracross, its aim was just slightly off and the two traded hits with the Rock-type attack. While Gyarados did take a significant amount of damage from the attack, Heracross was dangerously cut up and knocked unconscious very quickly.

"Heracross is unable to battle! Gyarados wins!" the referee was apparently getting excited seeing the Pokémon throw such powerful attacks back and forth. Thinking for a moment, Ash decided to let Butterfree have another chance to show off in the Conference. He didn't want to show off Greninja yet, Charizard already had a second battle, and Infernape and Kingdra would have problems since they didn't actually have attacks that had an advantage over a Gyarados, so Butterfree it was.

"I didn't think I would get to fight that Butterfree." Clay said. "It's definitely bigger in person than on television that's for sure. Gyarados! That Butterfree is strong enough to cut Steel-types, don't underestimate it!" the Gyarados roared in response, without taking its eyes off of Butterfree.

"Begin!"

"Butterfree, Sunny Beam!" Sunny Day was perfect for fighting Water-types, weakening the power of most of their attacks was always a good thing.

"Fire Blast Gyarados! Then Stone Edge!" Gyarados shot a blast of fire almost as strong as Infernape's before surrounding itself with stones and shooting them at Butterfree. Butterfree meanwhile was still charging energy for a Solarbeam, making Ash wonder why he was taking so long. Typically he can fire a Solarbeam almost instantly after Sunny Day. He was just about to yell at Butterfree to move before it was unleashed. The beam was absolutely gigantic, nearly as large as Butterfree was, tore through the Fire Blast and Stone Edge before slamming into Gyarados. Making it roar angrily and try to push back the massive attack, but proving too powerful for the Pokémon. After unleashing the attack for nearly thirty seconds, Butterfree let it fade and revealed Gyarados completely unmoving on the ground, unconscious.

"Gyarados is unable to battle! Clay has no more usable Pokémon, the winners are Butterfree and Ash!" the referee said, looking at Butterfree in awe, as were many people in the stands. That kind of attack was completely unexpected from a Butterfree, even one the size of Ash's. Hell, most Grass-types would have a problem launching a Solarbeam that powerful. Butterfree flew over to Ash, pride obvious in each movement and Ash almost burst out laughing at seeing Butterfree act like one of his dragons.

Recalling Butterfree and taking his Pokémon to the Center had Ash being stopped by almost every trainer he came across to ask him how he trained such a normally weak Pokémon to be so strong. All he would say was that Butterfree just fought hard to keep up with the rest of his team, no reason to tell everyone about who Butterfree would spar with, or why he felt the need to keep up so badly. Ash had a smile on his face for the rest of the day, despite his annoyance at not being able to get his team healed without all kinds of people getting in his way. He made it to the quarter finals in his first Conference! That was almost unheard of, even the nearly undefeated Lance didn't quite make it this far until his fourth. At this far in, whether he won or lost he had already made his announcement to the Leagues that he was there. Now he just had to make a bigger one by winning the Conference.


End file.
